


Fadeward Bound

by ushauz



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Crackfic-ish, Demons, Feels, Gen, Humor, Mild Angst, Spirits, The Fade, They get better, Very Temporary Character Death, absolutely not an au of anything at all, mild background Anders/Justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 06:05:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13496340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ushauz/pseuds/ushauz
Summary: After getting stabbed by Hawke in the mortal world, Justice awakes alive and well in the Fade. While mourning Anders' death, Justice then finds out that Anders is not, in fact, dead at all but instead still fused with Justice as in their previous mortal world state.Shunned by most pure spirits, they are forced to look to the seedier sides of the Fade for answers. Wisdom could aid them, surely, but to find such a spirit they will need help--and if that helps comes from Fade outcasts, even from possibly a demon, then so be it.





	1. Chapter 1

They had planned this, agreed upon it. They would die together for this. All of their efforts, every labor they have done in the last seven years had crumbled to ashes.

Justice bitterly understood what Velanna meant now, but they had to press on, not only to save the mages locked in the Gallows, but to show the world the hypocrisy of the Chantry. Either they would be arrested by Meredith and proven wrong, or this would happen.

Justice did not know where mortals, nor spirits, went where they died, but he had promised upon possession that he would strive to make a better world for mages. Anders had offered himself, and thus he promised upon his own life that he would dedicate himself to Anders’ cause, to strive to make a better world for mages. They could only hope.

As Justice died, thoughts muddying, he pettily thought in that at least Hawke could have stabbed in the front. Killing him from behind just seemed rude, but by the nature of their actions, someone must Judge Justice for what he had done, and he had placed that in Hawke.

It was still disgruntling.

He felt himself slip, body weakening, and he let it take. Everything went dark.

And then all of a sudden, Justice awoke in the Fade, very much not dead, but Anders was nowhere to be seen.

Justice screamed.

—

The Veil was thin. Not just thin, but sick, the area poisoned and twisted in a way he had never noticed when in the mortal world. Time must have passed since death and awakening because when he attempted to peer through, there was no violence. Charred buildings from fires that had mysteriously ran through the city since Justice had made sure the debris would not rain down upon the city. There were people with tools attempting to rebuild their homes, but no violence.

Clumsily, since he had not used his abilities for some time, he peered into the history soaked into the area. Hawke had kept their word. They and the others had fought for the mages and had slain Meredith.

That was… good at least.

But Justice was alive, and Anders was dead. They should have died together. They would die together for their crime, or live together spared. One or the other. Justice had never thought that dying would have merely returned him to the Fade.

He left the area. He did not wish to see Kirkwall any longer. His form still resembled Anders, albeit an a partially armored one, and Justice could not find it in himself to change it. He should. He knew he should. The proper thing to do… was to purge the memories, wipe clean, move on. It would allow him to resume his old path without being tainted by Despair.

He did not wish to wipe clean. He did not wish for Anders to have _died_. He would hold to his Despair instead, whatever the consequences of that may be as he no longer cared. He clung to his form and continued to wander.

—

Shortly after moving away from the sick Fade of Kirkwall, he noticed a single spirit in the guise of an elderly mage.

“Charity,” he said.

Charity frowned disapprovingly. “You are the one who destroyed the Chantry?”

“Yes,” he said softly.

“Good,” she said firmly. “Grand Cleric Elthina was a twisted woman who by inaction only caused mass suffering and further poisoning of the Veil.”

Justice had not meant to kill her actually, not initially. Anders had sent a series of death threats hoping it would cause her to leave as well as other Chantry workers in order to have as few casualties as possible. That said, he did not grieve her death for the very reasons Charity just said.

Charity nodded. “Then by that action I am obliged to give you a single boon. Protection upon you, more than what you already have. And with that I take my leave of you as I have no desire to be in your presence any longer than I absolutely must.”

A single glittering shield of silver appeared in front of him. He quietly took it, and she made a disgusted grunt. This did not make sense. “If you approve, then why are you upset with me?”

Her eyes narrowed, but then she vanished as quickly as she came.

That was odd.

—

Traversing the Fade felt strange, as if he was barely off key, but then it had been seven years since he able to walk fully as a spirit and not partially bound to a mortal body.

Years. Justice had almost gotten used to unforgiving passage of mortal time.

He should wipe clean, and he continued to not.

The Fade felt empty without the constant press of mortals, and he encountered no other spirits in his path. He could attempt to return to his cause or one of the two he had taken upon himself in the past. It tasted like ashes, but Justice could not wallow in Sloth. Had that not been why they struck against the Chantry? But he had no idea what to do in the Fade from his end. He had not planned on living alone in the Fade, only that he would be dead, or they would both be alive in the mortal world.

It would not be Sloth to wander and attempt to regain his bearings, right? In his current state, he would be a poor arbiter of Justice. It would only be prudent to resolve his inner conflicts before returning to a cause.

He did not attempt to regain his bearings. He purposefully avoided the beings of the Fade, and they seemed to avoid him in turn aside from his earlier encounter. Instead he continued to try to find thin areas to check on the mortal world and see how things were progressing. For some reason, he felt an urge to check on Kinloch Hold in particular, the Circle Anders had once been imprisoned in. Directions were difficult in the Fade, and it did not help that he was horribly out of practice, but Anders’ memories were still embedded inside him, vividly so.

A place in the mortal world was easier to find than an area in the Fade at least. They were set locations with history and stories layered upon each other. Kinloch Hold had been a ‘decent Circle’ by twisted standards, and Justice knew very well what those ‘standards’ were. Countless atrocities had been committed, and he drew upon those and set out, casting the beacon in front of him as a shimmering golden path.

Passage continued as it had before, alone, and stumbling. The loose time felt both familiar and alien at once, and the dissonance caused his self to coil. He focused on that instead of recent events, and step by step, eventually, he approached his destination.

Kinloch Hold stood tall as always, mages brightly swirling inside with only the faintest dim glow of the Templars. Injustices had increased as a warning; the message of what had happened had spread. He had that at least. Their gambit had been a successful one, and now the world was starting to question.

“Ah damn,” Anders said sadly. “I was hoping it had been destroyed by now.”

Justice promptly lost his shit.

—

After, you know, after Anders crackled bright blue and had _overwhelming_ feelings of confusion, relief, elation, and then a whole lot more confusion over the fact that he was alive, Anders put two and two together and realized that Justice was alive, and not only alive, but still… possessing him?

How was that even _possible_? They died! Anders had been thoroughly stabbed and awoke alone and desolate in the Fade. He’d chalked it off as being doomed to forever wander, barred from the Maker’s side.

Anders was fairly certain that abominations didn’t stay fused together post death. That just what wasn’t happened with abominations, right? But then again, they weren’t a typical one, now were they? Justice hadn’t possessed him from the Fade but from the mortal world. Was that why?

He was fairly certain that that still wouldn’t have resulted in… in this.

Anders needed a sit-down and also to hug himself in some attempt to try to hug Justice. He was _alive_ , and Anders hadn’t killed him, and they were both still alive and well. Just… permanently in the Fade he guessed.

Eventually, Anders wiped his cheeks, vaguely noticing he had been crying hard. Okay, so. He had no idea what had happened, and considering the fact that he had nothing else to do, maybe he should try to find some spirit that did know? Surely there would be some Wisdom that would. He struggled to make his bearings, but despite being a mage and thus somewhat familiar with the Fade, he wasn’t a Somniari. He couldn’t walk the Fade as he pleased. He barely knew how he managed to find here, but then, the answer to that was obvious in hindsight.

In the mortal world, while they were both there at the same time, Justice had lagged in the back of Anders’ mind as he had struggled to make sense of the mortal world, at least at first. Especially time. That’d always been hard for Justice. It’d only make sense for Anders to now do the same since he had no idea what to do here. Justice was the native. He’d know.

Anders gently loosened his hold on his body—what even what he now?—and then waited for Justice to take over.

—

Justice had usually wandered the Fade on his own. It wasn’t unusual, as there were many spirits and demons that did as such. Spirits did not rely upon each other the way mortals did; coming into being on one’s own resulted in no families the ways mortal thought of them, and thus the fundamental basis of mortal society simply wasn’t there.

That didn’t mean that there weren’t places of congregation in the Fade, their own societies, because while there wasn’t the same fundamental basis of mortal society, that didn’t mean they didn’t have their own. Justice had occasionally visited society from time to time in order to obtain rumors of hostile demons that required vanquishing or to barter for things. Music, sometimes. He’d always felt guilty as it was no purview of Justice, and he would compensate by searching for dreams of people righting great wrongs after. While Justice preferred to directly enact Justice, it was important to examine and learn from history and dreams. Justice, after all, was not fully his idea but rather ‘Seeker of Justice’.

Cities were made from either a regional lord, for lack of a better term, a massive spirit or demon inviting and hosting spirits to their demesne for a variety of possible reasons. Others were formed as a fusional pact from a conglomerate of spirits who would form the laws of that land. Dreams and information could be bartered for, messages and directions and meeting areas, mediation and diplomacy, neutral grounds for rivalries, areas to find others to engage in group dreaming, and many other such goods and services.

Due to the mass of spirits in the area, these regions were far easier to find and at times acted as waypoints. Indeed, sometimes that was the sole reason a city was brought into being due to the shifting nature of the Fade, even if cities were also common near areas where the Veil was thin.

Justice wandered, passing through the outskirts of dreams while Anders became distracted by the fascination of just walking into someone else’s dream. He let himself be tugged somewhere nearby by the gravity of the city. A small one by the feel, but it would be easier to gain his bearings there.

Anders was _alive,_ and he could weep in relief, but at the same time, Anders was right there, lost and confused, and that bled through to Justice.

Focus. They would figure this out soon enough.

Eventually, a glowing area spread before him in twisting spires. Far more of a waypoint than a proper city, but it would do. He could get directions here. As Justice neared, a spirit of Loyalty emerged from the city, clad in ancient armor.

“Ah yes, Loyalty,” Justice said formally. “I am looking for aid-”

“Leave immediately,” Loyalty said, staff in hand.

Justice paused and thought about things. He didn’t appear to be trespassing on any territory, and he had made no hostile moves since he arrived a breath ago.

“May I ask why?” Justice asked.

Apparently that did not qualify as ‘leave immediately,’ as Justice was promptly attacked.

—

Justice had no idea how he ranked in power compared to others, or if Anders’ combined presence aided him, but regardless Loyalty had proved no threat to Justice. No, instead Justice almost felt sorry for this Loyalty spirit. She had truly done her best, and as Justice had apparently broken some rule, Justice left her alive and retreated, feeling guilty all the while for having somehow trespassed against the city.

He supposed he would simply have to find some other waypoint to get bearings.

—

This time, the town itself encased itself in thick iron spikes when Justice approached. Rather rude.

Justice sighed. “May I ask why I am barred from entry?”

This time, it was an Honor spirit. “Abomination,” they hissed.

“Ah.” That made sense. Spirits did frown on possession. Perhaps that was why Charity was displeased by his presence? “Surely by your Domain you would be able to tell it was consensual. I was dying, and he offered me his body- would you like to speak to him directly?”

“No! Not an abomination in the mortal world, one now. What _are_ you?” they asked, voice ringing in horror. “What manner of horror do you be? Was it through your own twisted actions, or dark sorcery of some twisted mage?”

“I take it then this is not typically happens when an abomination dies?” Justice asked.

Honor summoned a sword, shaking their head. “You are a monstrous breach of nature. You must perish.”

—

Honor was even less of a threat than Valor had been, by which he meant that the fight was over in less than half a minute. After, Justice imprisoned them in a temporary paralysis, or rather Anders did. The city in response only thickened its defenses.

“I mean no harm,” Justice said lamely. “I merely wish to ask for directions to a Wisdom spirit or someone else who may know how to separate us.”

 _Monster_ , the Fade around him echoed.

…he could go try another town.

—

Around the eighth time he was either barred from entry or attacked by a spirit, Justice began to feel that perhaps he was using the wrong approach. He was also starting to suspect that, no really, he was not a typical case. Many abominations had been slain in Kirkwall, and while Kirkwall was not a decent metric of how the rest of Thedas worked, there were enough deaths of abominations that spirits would be familiar with what they looked like if Justice and Anders were a standard case.

Justice considered his options.

He wanted desperately to talk to Anders or at least to hold him for a while. Now that they were in the Fade, surely there would be someone who could separate the two. That would be the right thing to do?

But Anders was not a spirit. He was mortal. Could they separate without Anders perishing in the act?

If they didn’t separate, he could do as he once did, to wander and find demons preying on mortals and kill them for their crimes, but the thought was bitter on his tongue.

He had committed a crime for the sake of Justice. He had committed injustice for a greater cause. The turmoil swirled inside him. They had died for their crimes, but if they awoke after in the Fade, did it count? Should he seek penance, or was the temporary death enough? Did the grander cause justify the explosion, sacrifice a few lives to save countless more?

If Justice could not find his own answers, then what right did he have to act as a vanguard of justice?

Seeker of Justice. He would need to reflect on this, and that could take some time. Now that he was in the Fade, he could seek counsel from Justice and Wisdom both.

…or he _could_ , if he wasn’t attacked at every settlement he came across and also by the few wandering spirits he had found. Separation then seemed like a worthy goal, but how was he supposed to seek information on the process when he couldn’t even enter the cities to find directions to those who knew?

—

At some point later during their continued (and failed) attempts at finding some spirit that wouldn’t attack them, a wisp shyly wandered into the area.

The wisp buzzed. “?”

“Oh hello,” Anders said. “Hey there. I’m not a threat! I’m friendly, see?”

Anders cast a few glittering lights about.

The wisp said, “!” and then excitedly chased after them. They were large for a wisp, on the brink of becoming an Idea of some sort, but of what they still had no idea.

“Aside from Charity, you are the first thing that hasn’t attacked me since I got here,” Anders said. He paused for a moment, reflecting upon that. He hadn’t taken all the attacks personally. If anything, there was something almost pedestrian about their situation. They had been a ‘freakish abomination’ back in the mortal world, almost invariably attacked by anyone who found out. The only exception had been…

Hawke. And then through Hawke, the others.

That was almost ironic, huh. It stung. They knew it was going to happen, but it still throbbed, the betrayal, not just of Hawke but also that only Merrill had voiced an opinion otherwise. He thought he had prepared for the fact that most, if not all, of them would not stand for him, but it still stang, still a sharp pain-

Anders reached behind awkwardly with a hand and felt at his back.

Yup. There was indeed a stab wound in the exact same place that Hawke had stabbed him.

Was that just going to be a permanent thing in the Fade? Could he heal that? He attempted to draw upon healing magics and knit his flesh together, but then, he had no flesh to heal. Well there went his specialty. All those years of spirit healing school now deemed useless.

“Visualize it?” Anders asked out loud. He got no response and frankly wasn’t sure what he had been expecting there.

“What do you think?” Anders asked, looking over at the wisp.

The wisp just pulsated various colors at him.

“Those are very good thoughts,” Anders said, nodding sagely.

—

The wisp trailed behind them for some reason, occasionally flashing colors or darting about. There had to be someone who both knew what to do and also wouldn’t attack them. Charity hadn’t, but then she had been disgusted with his presence and had been ‘obligated’ to give him the shield.

There had to be some place he could seek answers, but where? Perhaps a larger settlement? But if he was deemed a threat, which had so far been the only case, then he would forever be barred.

On a whim, he tried to sense the location of the Blackmarsh, an area where the Veil had been the equivalent of wet paper. There was no reason for his actions, unless Anders had one, but it was a direction to wander towards while continuing to think. It was also a place he knew of, and thus he could use his beacon as a guide.

Or he could try. He fumbled with it, just as he had fumbled with directions, with travel. A flash of guilt radiated through him, and he was not sure who it was from.

He was so absorbed in trying to pinpoint the location as he wandered that he initially did not notice the person standing near.

Justice startled, turning his attention. Right there was nothing other than a demon, and Justice reflexively summoned his sword and now shield in his arms.

The demon, however, was in no threatening stance on account of how they were laughing too hard.

“Can I help you?” Justice asked frostily.

“Oh that’s too good,” the demon said. “Oh that’s just too good. Oh man.” And then the demon promptly vanished.

Well. That was the third time Justice hadn’t been attacked.


	2. Chapter 2

The Blackmarsh, when he finally arrived, held no answers, only echoes of the past.

“We met here,” Justice said.

There was no answer.

Justice sat once more, observing the thinness of the Veil. While stronger than it had been when Justice had first entered, it was still terribly thin. He attempted to peer into the mortal world, see how the land itself was doing, but nothing.

A memory tugged at the back of his mind. He had met the Warden-Commander here, as well as meeting… himself. Memories from that time were disjointed for a reason.

Mahariel initially had no desire to side with him, but she had been kind enough to explain why. She had needed the Baroness’ aid in order to send her, and the rest of the Wardens’, spirits back to their bodies. Justice had been able to persuade her otherwise by promising that if she joined in his fight against the Baroness’ evil reign, he would seek out some demon to question them on how to send them back figuring that they would be the most likely to know.

Justice, as a rule of thumb, was not fond of demons. They preyed upon mortals, upon each other, upon spirits. They were creatures of inequity.

He could, however, when it was absolutely needed, tolerate them in short amounts, and occasionally engage in trade. This did not mean that trade was always successful; once, when a Hunger demon decided he didn’t like Justice’s offer, he tried to eat him.

The problem was that as of yet, the only three beings that hadn’t immediately attacked him or were frightened of him were a wisp, a spirit who had wanted nothing to do with him, and then a demon who had deemed him ‘funny’.

…perhaps Justice could continue to try with more spirits. One was not a pattern, after all.

“Hello?” a soft voice rang out.

Justice turned to look. Why did he need to turn? He was not in a physical body anymore and thus not bound by mortal perceptions. Habit, maybe?

“Compassion,” Justice said falteringly.

And it was indeed Compassion, standing in front of them in the guise of a faceless person.

He waited, tense, and watched Compassion closely, but as Compassion continued to not move, Justice relaxed, heartened.

“May I aid you?” he asked.

Compassion tilted their head. “You are wounded,” they said softly. “They betrayed you.”

Ah. Right. Compassion. “Yes,” he said simply.

“All of your friends and all those you hoped could be friends. They did not stand by you. They did not try to stop Hawke. They watched impassively as you died.”

“Yes.”

“You are lost,” Compassion said, stepping towards them. “You don’t know if you did the right thing, don’t know if you have sullied yourself in the mortal world, if you still remain Justice. Or Anders, if you are damned in the eyes of the Maker, doomed to forever wander the Fade instead of being pulled into His embrace.”

“It was the right thing,” Anders said stubbornly. “But it wasn’t easy. It-”

“It stings like the knife wound in your back?” they asked.

“Is that symbolic or something?”

Compassion just hummed.

“I don’t know… what I even am,” one of them said. “Surely this isn’t what happens when abominations die, or the spirits wouldn’t have reacted the way they did. What am I?”

“An abomination,” Compassion said and then promptly slit Anders’ throat.

Anders fell backwards, and Justice surged forward, knocking Compassion back from them and willing their body healed, rejecting the near fatal injury Compassion had forced upon them.

“You are in pain,” Compassion stated peacefully, bloodied dagger in hand. “Your existence is anathema. Death would be a mercy twice over. It doesn’t have to hurt! Let the death take.”

Justice summoned his sword and shield and then attempted to raise a wall between the two. After all, the Fade was mutable. It responded to will.

The Fade stayed exactly where it was, and Compassion lunged. Justice knocked them backwards with the silver shield, and Compassion just vanished. They were gone, except no, they had only made themselves hidden. Justice attempted again to raise a wall, and then desperately to at least spread stone around him so that Compassion could not shape the land under his feet, but still he could not shape the area around him.

What was going on?

The landscape shifted into a mire, the ground underneath him becoming thick mud, and he stumbled to his knees and sank slightly.

Justice attempted to will the land around him again; Compassion had approached him and thus challenged him in his own-

The realization struck just before a tree root impaled him through the heart.

_No._

They had survived more in the mortal world; this would not stop him now.

He sliced off the tree root and scrambled just barely out of the way when more impaled through the earth. He was bleeding, gravely injured, and Compassion was still nowhere to be seen, because of course Compassion had retreated his avatar and was solely the land around him.

And Justice couldn’t fight back, because _Justice had no demesne._

As Justice scrambled for any response, Anders did what was most instinctive to him in bad situations, which was to run the fuck away.

—

When they had finally reached someplace of solitude and were far, far away from the crazy Compassion spirit, Anders stopped. He had healed at some point, or at least his chest did, but he still felt… lesser.

Of course he did. He had been gravely injured.

Okay, so Anders was going to have to deal with not just crazy Fade logic but also spirit logic? Was that what he was? No, because otherwise the spirits wouldn’t have reacted so poorly, and also because he had been hardcore freaking out that he no longer had land to sprawl out around him like that was a normal thing for him to do.

A rush of panic hit him in full force, and Anders had to have another sit down. Hopefully no crazy Compassion spirit would stab him this time. He just wanted a place to come up with a plan, but there was no plan to be had, and now he felt more panic because not only did he not have a demesne, he also had no plan!

“Shhhhh,” Anders said out loud and feeling extremely silly for it. “We can figure this out. Okay so. No spirits. That’s probably going to suck for you, but I think we should just avoid them.”

And time to address the darkspawn in the room. “It’ll just be for collecting data, okay?”

No.

“So far only one person hasn’t attacked us or been completely disgusted by our presence, and we need to see if there is a pattern.”

No.

“Even if it was a fluke, maybe we could try tracking down that guy and seeing if they could help us?”

_No._

“Look do we have any other plans? Any at all? A single plan of action? I would love to explore your world, Justice, but to do that I would like some insurance that spirits aren’t going to continue to try to kill me. Us.”

Anders wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but it seemed like Justice almost… whined.

—

Justice reminded himself over and over that he had before dealt with demons in what could be considered neutral ways. He had been willing to track down a demon for the Warden-Commander if she aided him against Pride in order to find out how to send her spirit back to the mortal world.

He reminded himself of this repeatedly. He had been willing to do such an act before, and thus it was no sign of corruption that he would be willing to do one now.

The problem was, not just any demon would do. Usually, Justice was able to track down demons by the sensation of Wrong they were committing. That was how he had found the Baroness. If he found demons in such a manner though, they would likely be the kind Justice would kill, and that defeated the purpose.

The wisp had somehow found them again and had attached themself to Justice’s side, humming as he traveled with just his body and nothing else, and Justice had to stop thinking there before anxiety consumed him again. He had gotten so used to being confined into one form that he hadn’t realized that he still was, and that as of yet, they had only been traveling by skirting around the edges of dreams and demesnes. At least he could still summon from the Fade. Or was that Anders who could, and Justice was merely drawing upon his abilities?

Justice had never so badly wanted to meet with a Wisdom spirit in his entire existence.

His ultimate solution was to vaguely saunter over to where he could sense a large number of mages, because where there were mages, there were demons. Usually they were the kind he had to kill, but sometimes they were simply curious to see what all the fuss was about. He hadn’t gotten close enough to the nexus of Kinloch Hold before, and in lieu of anything else, he decided that should be his destination.

It was also someplace he could find. He had just been there. It was a trip he could make without needing to summon his own land to travel, which was necessary as _he currently didn’t have a demesne._

_Shhhhh._

He cautiously approached, as he was getting rather tired of being attacked all the time. It would be temporary, he told himself. He wasn’t asking for anything heinous, merely directions. He had been willing before when absolutely necessary to approach demons, and his current situation probably counted. And it wasn’t like he had been in company of the purest of virtue back in Kirkwall. Even beyond Hawke’s circle, a number in the mage underground were far less than pure, some being thieves or murderers, some being reliable but always wanting coin for their services.

Justice hadn’t liked it, but nothing was pure in the mortal world, and he had gotten used to it.

He had been willing to ask demons before, and thus asking was not a sign of corruption.

He slowly, _slowly_ moved closer to the nexus where he could see demons flitting about.

Demons that preyed on mages.

Well it wasn’t like he knew any other good places to find demons, now did he? Maybe some of them were just watching.

Surely they could find better demons elsewhere, if such a thing as possible.

Justice didn’t _seem_ to know the popular hang-out zones for demons so, unless he had any other ideas, he should just go for it.

As Justice internally debated with probably Anders and not necessarily his own mind, he noticed a presence looming closer. He quickly turned, resisting the urge to summon weaponry for a multitude of instincts at this point.

It was a Rage demon who was just staring at him curiously. Everything around him was currently charred beyond recognition or actively on fire, and the sky crackled ominously.

…honestly Justice was hoping he would have been attacked because that would have meant an isolated incident which would have meant he wouldn’t have to deal with demons.

“…hello,” Anders said cautiously. The demon said nothing in return, just still staring at them while a house continued to burn. A few wisps quickly zoomed out, having noticed that the Rage demon had paused in his path of wanton destruction.

“So, um, I seem to have a bit of a predicament,” Anders said, hyperfocused on the demon’s every movement. “And I was hoping to find some, uh, some help for this? I don’t suppose you would know anybody who could help out?”

Rage just tilted his head inquisitively but still did not attack them.

“Well okay then. I’ll just keep looking around?”

Anders began to walk towards the main area, but the Rage demon moved closer.

Anders whipped around, but he still didn’t seem hostile, just really fucking curious. Anders supposed he couldn’t blame him. “If you can’t help, I’d really prefer to be left alone.”

—

The Rage demon did not leave them alone. Whenever Anders tried to shoo him off, Rage would slither back for a while but then keep trailing them, looking upon them with utter bafflement.

“Look, honestly,” Anders finally said. “Either aid me or leave.”

“I am not familiar with what you are,” Rage said. Communication at last.

“Okay, that’s fine,” Anders said. “But do you know someone who might?”

Rage slithered forward slightly. “So… you don’t know either?”

Anders resisted the urge to scream and pull at his hair. “No! That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to find someone who can help.”

Rage nodded.

“So. Do you know someone?”

Rage shook his head. “Normally I would recommend seeking the counsel of spirits, but I am not certain they would aid one such as you.”

“What do you mean one ‘such as me’?”

“I am but Rage,” he said, eyes dripping light. “I am no expert on knowledge. That is Wisdom’s Domain. But with my, admittedly limited, observation, spirits are not fond of what they do not consider to be pure. I have no idea if purity applies to your case, or if purity is even an obtainable concept, but they may find your state distressing and an affront upon nature.”

“That sounds about right,” Anders said wearily. “Okay well, I appreciate you not attacking me, but I am going to find someone who can help.”

—

Justice resigned himself to his fate, as after a few more tries, he still could not ditch the Rage demon. He sighed and just looked behind him, waiting. Rage seemed almost hurt, but when Justice continued to stay put, Rage slithered closer.

At least he had stopped his rampage of destruction.

The wisp began to bounce around Rage quite happily because wisps were simple beings.

“Why are you here?” Justice finally asked.

“I am curious about you,” Rage said. “I have never seen your kind before. As mentioned, I am curious and wish to learn about you, but that is difficult when you yourself—or should it be yourselves?—don’t know.”

“No, why were you here, in this area where demons prey on mages?”

“Ah.” Rage thought for a moment. “I am uncertain. I was told that by being Rage, I was a demon, so I sought out the company of other demons to see if this was the case. It is probably obvious to many others, but I am but Rage, and even though I am new, I am aware that we have hardly any intellect to speak of. In truth, I envy others for their capacity for reasoning.”

“You don’t know if you are a spirit or a demon?” Justice asked slowly.

Rage shook his head. “It does not help that I am new as well as being Rage. Do you know what I am?”

Justice had no idea how to answer that. Rage was the Domain of demons, and Justice had never heard of a Rage _spirit_.

However, Justice had seen a number of mages in these past years who let themselves get possessed by demons because they had been told over and over that that was inevitable to the point where it weakened their resistance against demonic influence. He had seen Tal-Vashoth grow vicious because they had been told repeatedly that that was what simply happened with their kind if they abandoned the Qun.

“If you do not know, then neither do I,” he said simply.

“Perhaps we shall both find answers here,” Rage said. “Though yours may require more search than mine.”

—

“I don’t suppose-”

And the demon promptly cracked up laughing and vanished before Justice could finish his question.

_Demons._

—

After a few tries, Rage perked up. “I have a suggestion. They appear to find your state humorous for some reason. Perhaps I could go in for you and ask in your stead and explain your state. That way they are informed and do not immediately leave upon seeing you.”

Justice made a disgruntled noise which Rage took as a sign of agreement who promptly vanished.

—

After a certain point, Anders wondered if Rage had abandoned them. Maybe the curiosity wore off. Or maybe he was invited into some weird demon party. Anders wouldn’t know. Anders didn’t even know there were cities of demons. This was news to him.

It was rather horrifying to be honest, seeing the massive sprawling land all interconnected in strange ways defying traditional gravity. Maker, this had been there the entire time Anders had been at Kinloch Hold. No wonder the demons never seemed to shut up; there were hundreds of them here, perhaps thousands.

Anders tapped his fingers waiting. Then he summoned Justice’s sword and shield, just to see if he could. Then what was most certainly not him tried desperately to shape the land around him, just the slightest change.

Nothing.

Anders decided to distract himself from Justice’s anxiety and maybe soothe him by default by playing with the wisp. He summoned a tiny red light to dart around that the wisp enthusiastically followed, chirruping happily. Eventually, he slid the red light right on their tiny wisp body.

“!” the wisp said in confusion.

“Haha, I know bud. What are you going to do?”

“And now you are corrupting an innocent wisp!”

Anders turned. It was the same Honor from earlier. At least it wasn’t that Compassion. Anders really didn’t want to run into them again.

“Yes, I am corrupting it by shining red lights,” Anders said sarcastically.

Honor summoned their sword in what would have been an intimidating gesture if they had not already handedly beaten Honor.

“Seriously?”

Honor tapped a foot impatiently. “Draw your weaponry,” they finally said. “I cannot attack an unarmed opponent if I am not defending others.”

“That doesn’t give me reason to arm myself,” Anders said. “Honestly, that pretty much means the exact opposite. I’m fine, thanks.”

“A coward as well,” Honor said disdainfully.

“I beat you?” Anders said. “I could have killed you, but I didn’t. Track record is favoring me here.”

“And yet you run from your fate,” Honor said. “Victor or no, I cannot abide a monstrosity such as you to survive.”

Honestly, maybe Anders should kill them. No, no he’s tolerated worse, and the guy was essentially harmless.

“Monstrosity!” the wisp echoed brightly in a high voice.

“Repeating the sounds you hear now?” Anders asked.

“Sounds!!!”

“You- can we move the wisp elsewhere for our battle?” Honor asked, looking over at the wisp.

“I’m not moving them anywhere.”

Honor looked like they were doing arithmetic. “If you insist on sullying this wisp, then I have no choice but to attack you regardless to defend the virtue of this wisp.”

“Sullying this wisp,” the wisp repeated in that same high voice. And honestly, they probably didn’t mean to sound like they were mocking Honor as they were just repeating the sounds they heard, but it certainly came out that way. Anders was pretty sure if Honor was a mortal, their cheeks would have colored at this point.

“Are you sure you want to go?” Anders asked. “Because really-”

Honor then promptly attacked him.

—

Justice reluctantly dragged Honor away from Kinloch, at least moving them far enough that they wouldn’t be beset upon by demons in their weakened state.

He stood there for a moment, considering all of his recent decisions and life choices, though he was no longer sure if that phrase could even be applied to him. Eventually he sighed and walked back to the vague area where he was before.

While waiting, he attempted to shape the Fade as he once could as a spirit. He tried summoning trees, stone walls, and then just a firepit, a tent, all with no success. At least he still could bring forth his old weaponry.

“Holy shit, you weren’t joking.”

Oh good. Another demon. A _Desire_ demon in fact who was tailing behind Rage, waving helpfully.

“Wow you really fucked up there, didn’t you? That’s what you get I suppose.” Desire laughed and turned to Rage. “Demons do it better, amirite?” They then high-fived. Justice hated him already. “You’re all entangled up in each other and hobbling around. I think if you squint it could be considered cute.”

“Cute,” Justice repeatedly blandly.

“Better than ‘abomination’,” Desire said, and Justice grudgingly conceded that point. “Which might be what’s going on? Some kind of spirit abomination? Like, there’s mortal world abominations, so maybe there’s a Fade equivalent.”

“Possibly,” Rage said. “Though it seems difficult. Not necessarily impossible, but difficult, as the nature of the Fade is that of ephemeral ideas. While someone can attempt to fuse with another here, by the lack of anything physical to hold onto, such attempts are short-lived, hence why possession is only heard of happening to the mortal world. I imagine there is a similar restriction for mortals as they are too physical to properly fuse together unless powerful magic was at work.”

Desire and Justice both looked at Rage who flickered self-consciously.

“I apologize if anything was wrong,” he said. “I’m only Rage.”

“No your theory seems about right,” Desire said. “A possibility but only with some really weird magic shit going on. I wasn’t thinking anything as grand, just like maybe some kind of weird reverse possession thing going on.”

“But wouldn’t reverse possession require the original spirit or demon to have been in the Fade when it started?” Rage asked more to himself than to Desire. “Because otherwise, how did they get here?”

Even if he had to talk to a demon, Justice did hold standards. Too many of them, according to Varric, but then Varric-

“What were you doing there?” Justice asked, eying the distant city.

“If you were asking if I was trying to possess someone, no,” Desire said. “I’m smarter than that. I was merely finishing up a trade for a friend. You’re lucky, actually, since I wouldn’t be caught dead near one of these hellholes otherwise.”

Even through the cacophony of the Circle’s Wrongs in the background, Justice could sense that Desire wasn’t lying. That was something at least.

“Please tell me you know someone,” Justice said wearily. “Can you just point me in the right direction?”

Desire spun up an extravagant chair to lounge upon, and then as an afterthought, spun up one for Rage as well. Not Justice. Justice was left standing where he was.

_Patience._

“See, here’s the thing,” Desire said, steepling his talons together. “I do know of a guy. He’s a rather, ah, eccentric Wisdom spirit. He collects all sorts of lore bits about weird curiosities and the like. If he doesn’t know what’s going on with you two and how to separate you back out, then he definitely will know the guy who will.”

“You want a deal,” Justice said blandly.

“What is so horrible about deals?” Desire asked offendedly. “Favor for a favor. I get you safely as I can to someone who knows why you two are all entangled and how to separate yourselves—not even just this Wisdom, anyone, just in case Wisdom for some reason doesn’t know—and then I get something back in return. I think that’s only fair, now don’t you?”

Justice hated making deals. Why couldn’t people just aid each other out of the virtue of their souls? He was, however, so terribly used to Kirkwall at this point, used to the atrocities of having to pay more than what any of them could owe in order to smuggle a batch of mages out, of dealing with murderers and extortionists as allies because over years he learned that he couldn’t be ‘picky’, of uneasy alliances with some Templars who stuck to their terrible beliefs but had the barest morality to recognize that perhaps the Gallows as it was was too much.

At least Rage hadn’t dragged back a Pride demon. Desire was barely better, but no one won trade with a Pride demon.

“That’s hurtful stereotypes,” Desire said, spreading a hand over his chest in mock hurt. “Look. I’m not going to ask you go to kill some yonder rival or anything. You’ve recently been in the mortal world. Quite recently. Like so incredibly recently?”

“Can you please not make a joke out of my death.”

“No. Anyway, I'm not asking much, just a token really, a trifle!”

“I’m not giving you my voice.”

“What? Why would I want your voice?” Desire asked confused. “No. I like mine fine, thanks. Bit presumptuous of you.” He rolled his eyes. “No, you just came fresh from the mortal world, ripe full of succulent memories and sensations. I want some. Honestly, you have so many that holding onto all of them would be downright greedy.”

“You can’t just do this to aid someone for charity’s sake alone?”

Desire snorted. “Haven’t you heard the stereotypes? I’m Desire. We don’t care about people.”

“You said a trifle,” Justice said reluctantly. “What kind of memories would you be interested in?”

“Sensation,” Desire said, drawing out the word. “The mortal world is chock full of it. I’m sure at some point you ate some delicious food. Upon fulfillment of my bargain, I would like to rifle through and pick out three strong memories of such.” Desire tilted his head. “See? That’s really not too much to ask for, now is it?

The worst part, Justice thought grudgingly, was that it really wasn’t.

“I have the right to veto any memory picked,” Justice said stubbornly.

“As long as you don’t abuse that to get me to pick less succulent memories,” Desire said.

Justice considered his life choices, his life in general, everything that had happened recently, the people he had known in Kirkwall, and so far at failing to remain a pure spirit. Desire was a demon, but he didn’t so far appear to be a _demon_. As much as Justice hated it, so far Desire seemed no worse than Isabela whose motto was ‘if we kill them we get to keep their stuff’, nor did he seem worse than Varric who had run a criminal organization on the side.

This would help nothing, but he could not seek counsel for his actions if he was unable to enter spirit society, or even merely talk to other spirits in general without attempted murder. These were good reasons to consider the deal and not that he desperately wanted to talk to Anders directly.

“…fine.”

The words were spoken, and the words became Law, and the bargain was very much in place. Desire languorously stood up before vanishing the chairs.

“Should I just rifle through now?” Desire asked. “I’ll only get them later, of course, but we may as well get this out of the way.”

Justice continued to internally grumble.

“Fine,” Anders said. “Though you may want to mainly look during the sixth Circle escape because I’m not sure I’ve had good food otherwise.”

It was a strange and semi-familiar sensation at once. It was almost an invasion of privacy, since someone was currently looking through a particular kind of memories, but it was only had a hint of humiliation, far less than, say, someone critiquing your spelling on your manifesto on why some people should have basic rights.

Desire at least was politely, or professionally, going through only the ones that fit the full criteria, and flipping quickly through those that were related to those nights at the brothels. Weird.

The searching paused for a second, and Desire frowned at him. “I’m Desire,” he said flatly. “I can have sex at any time I want if I so please. It’s not special in any way whatsoever, and I frankly tire of such stereotypes. The sensation of taste is considerably harder to get. Your brothel memories are of no interest to me, not even the ones where you got ‘creative’ with Isabela.”

“Sorry,” Anders said lamely.

Right as Desire began to resume his search however, a faint whimper came from the distance filled with overwhelming distress.

Anders held up a hand, already turning towards the sound. “Okay wait.” Desire looked annoyed. “Look, you can rifle later, but I need to make sure no one is stabbing Honor.”

“There’s an Honor spirit nearby?” Desire asked in that tone of someone asking if there was, indeed, a massive pile of shit off in the corner. Frankly, Anders couldn’t argue with him at this point.

“Is this the one that attempted to kill you?” Rage asked.

“How did-”

“I could kill them,” Rage offered. “They tried to kill you.”

“No, no one is killing Honor. They’re… harmless.”

“It is an affront,” Rage said animatedly. “They intended to kill you! It is reasonable to want to kill them back, which currently I do on your behalf.”

“Well I don’t!”

The whimper sounded again, and the wisp bounded in its direction. Anders ignored the others and followed the trail.

The trail twisted into a dream of ravaged fields and a sky filled with crows. A frightened mage then? While there were many charred houses, there was one that was faintly smoking. That would probably be the place to check.

“Something terrible happened here.”

Anders yelped as Rage suddenly materialized beside him, taking the form of something humanoid but too charred to tell what it once was. For some reason, Anders had the impression it actually wasn’t a person before it caught on fire.

“No shit, really?” Desire asked sarcastically, now looking like a golem while the wisp reappeared and started to bound around them, having already gotten bored.

_Honnleath_

It whispered through their minds.

“A dream of the Blight?” Justice asked before frowning. “No. No something is wrong.”

He strode forward past the flames and debris and opened the door to the house. There in the center was something akin to a werewolf but feline instead. Anders mentally perked up, having no idea that werelions were a thing, much to the exasperation of Justice, especially as the monster promptly attacked.

It screamed, voice shaking the walls, and lashed out with impossibly sharp claws at him. He reflexively summoned the shield Charity had given him which somehow withstood the blow.

In the distance behind him, a faint “Fuck!” could be heard.

Justice summoned his sword ready to strike, and immediately the beast dropped to the ground, clutching at its head. Justice paused, as this was not normally what happened in a fight.

“Don’t hurt me!” it—no, she—said, and the form of the werelion melted off, much to Anders’ displeasure for multiple reasons as there in front of them was Fear. Not a demon, but a spirit of Fear, looking up at him and absolutely terrified. There was no dreamer in distress; it was simply a strange Fear spirit.

Justice still held his sword and shield, mostly because he was uncertain of what to do in this scenario. This sort of thing didn’t happen to him often.

Fear curled in further on herself, spider legs wrapping around her. Anders definitely preferred the werelion form.

“I don’t know what you are, but please don’t hurt me,” she said.

“Oh dear,” Desire said from behind them, house shaping reflexively around him to be large enough to accommodate a golem’s size with the other two were right behind him, peering in from either side. “This only partially has to do with him, doesn’t it?”

Fear just clutched tighter.

“What do you mean?” Justice asked.

Desire ignored him.  “You… do realize that most who choose Fear go about reflecting mortals’ fears for a reason, right?”

Fear snorted and pressed her head to her knees.

“Like. Embodying Fear just seems to be a poor way to go about things. There are far better paths to take in regards to Fear here that won’t massively fuck you over.”

Oh. That was what was going on.

“I don’t know how,” Fear wailed. “I was doing that, but then I flipped and now I’m stuck and I can’t get unstuck.”

Rage walked over and patted her sympathetically on the back while the wisp nuzzled at her encouragingly.

“Was this the dream where you became ‘stuck’?” Justice asked.

Fear shook her head. “No. I don’t remember that dream. I ran. I was just trying to- I don’t remember. I was trying to help, but everything went wrong, and I can’t run because everywhere I go there’s more Fear and it all clings to me and I don’t know what to do.”

She clutched at the wisp who flashed soothing colors.

Desire looked over at Justice and then to Rage and then back at Fear. “Well. This Justice spirit and weird tag-along and I are just about to head off to see a Wisdom spirit who’s supposed to know all sorts of things. If you want, you can come as well. Maybe he’d be able to help you?”

Fear just stood up, still holding onto the wisp, before shakily nodding.

“If you don’t mind,” Rage said, “I would also like to come along. I have been meaning to seek knowledge for some time now, and a Wisdom spirit is surely a good place to find it.”

“What kind of knowledge do you seek?” Justice asked.

Rage shrugged. “I do not know, but I will know it when I do. I am only Rage after all. We are not as smart as many other spirits and demons; indeed, our kind are barely smarter than animals, and I would like to grow beyond that.”

“And perhaps you could ask on how to grow a heart,” Justice muttered darkly to Desire.

“Pffft. You wish.” Desire said, and then he clapped his hands together. “Well! We are off to meet this Wisdom.”


	3. Chapter 3

Desire summoned his own beacon to find Wisdom that for some reason also took the form of a golden road. They passed through dreams of a similar nature: an endless dark maze with some mysterious and faceless pursuer (which Justice was not fond of); pathways in the Deep Roads over (and under) an ocean of lava; an intact but utterly desolate city. Justice had the suspicion it was due to Fear gravitating towards such areas, but no one mentioned it. While their forms shifted from time to time based upon the nature of the dream, Fear was usually in her natural form, tattered cloth and spider legs half-hugging herself protectively.

Justice had never seen a Fear do that before, but then this Fear seemed to be a unique case.

The current dream of endless ice and a blinding blizzard slid into a snowy, dark forest with skeletal branches, all whispering amongst themselves.

“Huh,” Desire said.

It took Justice a moment, but then he saw it. This was not a forest spun from a single spirit or from several; this forest was made up of hundreds of thousands of wisps, each a tree softly glowing. The wisps chittered curiously when they noticed them, and some moved aside while a few others slid closer.

Their wisp brightened and then drifted off into the distance. Justice felt a pang at that as he, or maybe Anders, or perhaps both, had grown attached.

“Yal really don’t know what’s going on there, do you?” Desire asked, lazily flicking his tail.

Justice said nothing as it was none of his business.

The path wound through the forest, which itself moved from winter to spring to summer, or an interpretation of summer as still the only light came from the wisps themselves. It was peaceful, and thus that inevitably meant that the others would argue instead of enjoying the simple beauty of the forest.

“You can turn off the burning, you know,” Desire said.

“I am comprised of lava,” Rage said. “Lava burns.”

“Yes but it doesn’t have to burn. You can have it not burn.”

“I do not see the point-”

“We are in a forest of wisps. What if you hurt them? They are currently _trees_.”

“Then they can choose to not be burned. Wood does not have to be caught on fire as long as there is no hostile intention, and I have none. They are safe from me. Are you confused with how things work in the mortal world?”

“They are wisps. Wisps are simple. They might not understand such concepts. You can.”

Fear perked up. “Or by not understanding the nature of flame and how it destroys all that it touches, they may be immune to Rage by their own ignorance.”

“Then by your arguments,” Justice snidely said, “they may come to the conclusion that they should spontaneously catch flame and die.”

They fell blessedly silent after that.

—

The forest only grew, trees thickening, wisps conglomerating into something else of not necessarily hostile intent.

“How do I not be fire?” Rage asked suddenly.

Desire gave him an odd look. “You just don’t? You be something else. Like back in the dream Fear had.”

“Ah,” Rage said. “That is the first time something along those lines has happened to me. To be fair, I only recently became Rage.”

“Oh hey congratulations!”

Justice caught himself oddly thinking if that was similar to adulthood. “A good a metaphor as any,” he whispered.

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

“You weren’t scary before,” Fear said hopefully. “You could be before. That was fine. No, that’s a lie, that was still disturbing. You had no face. I didn’t like that.”

Desire gave her a reassuring pat on the back. “We’ll find Wisdom. He’ll sort shit out.”

This time the conversation that followed wasn’t as irritating as it was comforting as the forest only grew thicker and heavier. The others must have felt similarly as Fear began to talk at great lengths about any topic.

Something about the forest seemed off in a distant manner, and then Justice realized what it was. While he himself had felt nothing odd, this was not the flat mortal world where gravity insisted everything adhere to one plane. Areas were their own gravity, and thus it was not odd that the roots and forest paths twist sideways or upside down as there wasn’t really an ‘upside down’ in such an area.

Anders was not used to this, but eventually, Justice supposed, he would become so if they were to spend eternity in the Fade together.

…the thought was not displeasing.

Desire held up a hand. “Hold up a minute. Someone is pinging me.”

“What.”

Suddenly, the wisp that had been traveling with them before bounded up and gave off a series of harmonic notes.

“Nearby you say? That’s somewhat helpful. You’ll get there!” Desire said encouragingly to which the wisp happily bounced around the area.

Desire extended outwards, searching. Anders inwardly freaked as since he had never had proper spirit perceptions, and thus he had never noticed when spirits or demons did so. Anders would have a lot of things to get use to.

“Are they at least nearby?” Justice asked wearily. He had been hoping there wouldn’t be many detours, and he could get this over with as quickly as possible.

Desire promptly flipped him off, still partially peeled away.

“How are you doing that?” Rage asked curiously.

Desire suddenly retracted. “She found us,” he said helpfully, and then strode off in one particular direction.

“What?”

Desire waved a hand dismissively. “She was already looking! Keep up.”

Justice did not wish to see any deals Desire made on the side. Justice didn’t want detours. Justice wanted to make this trip as fast as possible.

The trees were lightly shoved back revealing a clearing where blossoms hung in the air. A spirit, not a demon, was waiting there, in the form of a spindly elvhen woman made up of roots entwined together.

The spirit—Fortitude—looked worried, attention darting back and forth between the members of the group and especially on Anders/Justice, but ultimately she approached.

“You are Desire,” she stated, the overlay of an identification of ‘this particular Desire’. “I was told you could help me with something?”

“Favor for a favor,” he said cheerfully, pulling up the same extravagant chairs for himself and Fortitude as he had when he talked with Justice. As an afterthought, he spun up ones for Fear and Rage as well.

Jackass.

Fortitude sat, hands clasped on her lap, still glancing about nervously.

“What can I do for you?”

“I, um. Hmmm.” The roots that comprised her face shifted and slid around each other. “I know there are spirits somewhere that engage in these sorts of practices, but I don’t know where they are, and I was told you would be helpful by a friend of a friend.”

“The best advertising is always through word of mouth,” Desire said lively.

She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Well. I want to possess someone.”

Desire’s movements stilled. “Oh?”

“You just get so many stories of people who do it wrong, and I want to do it right, you know.” She glanced over at Justice. “Um.”

Desire waved a hand. “An anomaly. We have no idea how these chucklefucks got in that state and are currently tracking down a Wisdom spirit to see what’s up because it’s _that_ rare. You probably have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding completely unassured. “I just- she’s a _very_ special mage, and originally of course I wouldn’t because good spirits aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing, and she’s a good virtuous mage who also would never do such a thing of course. But, uh, but we’ve been talking for some time now and rethinking things we once thought about what good people are and aren’t supposed to do. So we decided we want to make this step. We want to Do The Thing, but she’s very special, and I don’t want to mess this up, you know? So I guess I’m looking for some Safe Possession Tips.”

Desire nodded sympathetically. “I absolutely understand. Possession is a big deal. And if it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. You can unpossess her at any moment if you two are feeling uncomfortable with your state of affairs. This doesn’t mean that you can’t still remain together; you can just do what you are currently doing. Possession isn’t for everyone, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed if later down the road, you both decide that you are better off apart than coexisting in one body.”

Fortitude nodded.

“At the same time, a happy, consensual possession can be a wonderful experience. I hope it works out for you two.”

“So you can help?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course!” Desire said. “And you know what, forget the return favor thing. I’m just happy to help out.”

Justice’s eye twitched.

Desire leaned forward as did Rage and Fear in the background, raptly listening. “Okay. If you’ve already decided you want to do this, and she’s not in some immediate ‘about to die’ situation, then it’s important to choose a proper place and time. Make sure it’s in a completely safe location where no one can oversee you. Even if you think it’s safe, scout it out multiple times because the process is disorienting afterward, and it usually takes some time to sort out who’s who.”

Justice refused to feel self-conscious.

“There’s also no reason to not make the event itself Special, you know?” Desire continued. “This is a huge event, so try to celebrate it beforehand! Maybe she can eat her favorite foods, or you could replay through together some wonderful memories you have stored. Treat yourselves beforehand. This also helps alleviate stress, and minimal stress makes things go smoother.”

Justice had made an offer in private. A few weeks later, also in private, Anders had said yes. They agreed upon a place and time they were sure was safe, and then they didn’t speak to each other about it for another week due to the constant watch of the Templar. It wasn’t like they had the luxury of being able to celebrate it.

“Again, it’s not recommended to merge during a time of great stress,” Desire said. “If you absolutely have to, then that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Otherwise make a day of it! Also a common mistake is for someone to possess too quickly. You can take your time. It’s okay to just ease in. There’s no need to shove your entire self in them all at once. That can be painful and also cause all sorts of disorientation and identity and memory confusion which can bite you down the road. Just take it slow, and you’ll be fine.”

Justice _refused_ to feel self-conscious.

Fortitude nodded again.

“Now there is going to be some overlap because that’s how the nature of possession works. You have to have some overlap in order to connect. But despite how it may seem sometimes, you are still two very different individuals, and you will need to keep this in mind down the road for a healthy relationship. It’s recommended in the early days—should you have a problem with this because not everyone does—to get a solid handle on who is who.”

“But taking it easy beforehand helps with that,” Fortitude said.

“Exactly. And also I figure if you are going to possess someone, you should do it right, you know? If she’s that Special Mage who is willing to defy toxic teachings to merge with you, then that’s a day worth celebrating! In some places where this sort of thing occurs more regularly, the duo might even mark it down on the calendar so they can celebrate that day every year, like a birthday or anniversary, you know?”

Justice just wanted this to be over so he could go crawl into a shamehole and pretend he didn’t exist.

“That’s a good idea!” Fortitude said. “Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.”

“Again, I hope it works out,” Desire said. “Let me know afterward if you can. Send a messenger wisp my way.”

Fortitude left with a small wave before vanishing into the Fade.

“I don’t think anyone would want me to possess them,” Fear said sadly, clutching herself.

Desire patted her on the back. “You never know.”

“Can we please move on,” Justice said wearily.

“That’s rather rude,” Rage said. “Desire was helping someone out of sheer goodness on its own. Surely that is worth a small sliver of time?”

“Yeah _rude_ , Justice,” Desire said, unraveling the chairs.

Fear said nothing but did look judgmental.

—

After further travel, the forest began to thin out, but for some reason, Justice only felt disturbed by this.

“I don’t like this either,” Fear said, agreeing with his thoughts. “It’s growing emptier, not sliding.”

And then just like that, the entire forest was gone with only the faintest bit of land underneath their feet. As far as Justice could see, could sense, there was simply nothing. No demesnes floating on their own. No faint shimmer of mages or distant flickers of other mortals dreamers. No beacon reaching out. Nothing.

“Well I didn’t think the transition out of Chantryland would be so intense,” Desire said with a whistle and placing his hands on his hips.

“Chantryland?” Rage asked.

“Yeah like Tevinterland or Qunland. Huge collection of dreamers with similar religious and philosophical backgrounds. All the preconceptions and similar ideologies of these dreamers tie into each other creating ‘lands’ here, instead of say in the mortal world where land is based upon geography.”

“There is overlap then!” Rage said, sounding pleased with himself.

“Righto, my bud. It’s why you won’t find many Faith spirits who decide to go waltzing about Ferelden who know the finer details of the works of Koslun or even usually adhere to non Chantry-based faiths. Not unless they travel anyway. Like you can stumble from a dream in one area of Chantryland to another area far off, and sometimes traveling between two bits a sneeze away in the mortal world will take so fucking long, but if you want to find the Avvar, well, that’s a much longer journey.”

“Tevinterland is the worst,” Fear whispered.

“Truer words were never said,” Desire said.

“I also agree,” Rage said, nodding wisely.

Justice did not feel as if he had enough data to argue either way, but he definitely did not enjoy his experience in ‘Chantryland’.

“Anyway, this particular Wisdom doesn’t live in Chantryland, so we have to cross a divide.” Desire gestured at the wide expanse of nothing in front of them.

Justice did not appreciate Desire drawing his attention back to it. The Nothing was dizzying to look at, and Justice felt himself taking a single step backward and feeling oddly lightheaded.

Desire huffed. “I mean yeah, it’s disturbing, but that’s the direction we have to go in, so-”

Fear shook her head. “He doesn’t have a demesne.”

Both Rage and Desire looked at him oddly.

“That is a side effect?” Rage asked.

“I don’t know,” Justice said.

“Could you grow one again?”

_“I don’t know.”_

Justice was not used to feeling fear. He was not necessarily a stranger to it, but this?

No way to brace himself, no certainty of being caught. No guarantee of something to catch him, because all he could see was nothing, no guarantee there would be something at the bottom because _all he could see was nothing_. Just an eternity of falling forever into the Void, into Nothing.

“You can come with me?” Fear asked. “Um. It’d be a burning hellscape, but it’s land to travel on.”

“I’ll bolster,” Desire said. “No sense in any of us taking risks.”

The flaming fields from before spread out again, and the others’ forms changed accordingly as to how they were before.

Justice was still frozen still since he had suddenly and very intimately discovered why some mortals had a paralyzing fear of heights.

It was still there. Just because he couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. It wasn’t the same as in the other areas of the Fade where demesnes upon demesnes floated above and below each other. There was always ‘there’ there. Here there was nothing except for a single demesne, just two demons away from Nothing, and then falling forever.

He couldn’t move.

“It’s okay,” Fear said next to him. “I’m terrified all the time! I guess that gives me an advantage I suppose. I’m used to it.”

“Look,” Desire said reluctantly. “We get to Wisdom. She fixes your shit. You have land again. There ya go, all better, and then no more worries about Nothing.”

Desire had made a deal with Justice, one he couldn’t cross. While there were always ways to find loopholes in contracts, ironically, this fact gave him comfort. It was in Desire’s best interests to make sure Justice made it across in one piece.

“There we go,” Fear said. “Whatever works for you.”

—

Time was an elusive concept in the Fade. Things did not progress through years but rather events. People did not age with time but age with experience and growth. That said, it took an upsettingly long time to cross the Nothing. The fear abated barely as they traveled, but there was still more Nothing to cross. Eventually, Justice felt a strange nagging sensation, almost a push. He realized for what it was and graciously conceded to Anders, sequestering himself as far away from current events as he could.

It wasn’t that Anders wasn’t also scared of falling for eternity, but Anders was currently in the process of getting used to waltzing about the Fade, and there were only so many things Anders could keep up with.

If he squinted, he could see the edge of the fields slowly stretching further the more they walked. Huh. He glanced over to Fear, who as subtly as she could skittered closer to Desire.

“Are we really that scary?” Anders asked.

“I don’t know,” Fear said. “I’m not the best judge of things right now.”

“Fair enough,” Anders said.

“Your merged state seems useful despite the number of hostile attempts on your life,” Rage said. “You could play to either of your strengths or cover for weaknesses.”

“Or have someone get you out of bed first thing in the morning when you are feeling too lazy to get up yourself,” Anders said.

Rage cocked his head.

“Nevermind.”

Anders still had no idea if Rage was actually a demon or not, but then, Rage didn’t either. Anders had had Ideas about the Fade and how it worked. Then Anders had become a spirit abomination and gotten chased out of cities and pursued by a spirit of Honor.

Hopefully the guy was okay. Granted they were trying to kill them, but it was just so hard to take them seriously.

Anders then stumbled, almost losing his footing, and then he almost lost his footing again due to the overwhelming panic that suddenly smacked him upside the head. It was okay Justice.

“Success!” Desire said cheerfully.

Everything still looked like a desolate field wasteland to Anders, but Fear slowly began to unravel her layers back into her core (Anders would never be used to that Sweet Maker), and there in front of Anders was a beautiful country. Faintly, he could sense through Justice the presence of a dreamer, and relief washed over him in waves.

“Which land are we in?” Rage asked Desire.

“I’m not entirely sure which geographical locations on the mortal world map this correlates to, but people tolerate us here, and that’s what counts. I mean, I think. I don’t get over here very often. There’s like maybe two bridges across, and I still can’t figure out where those are. Point is, Wisdom is in this area.”

“If this is a nicer place, then why don’t you live here?” Fear asked, eyes darting about.

Desire sighed. “It’s complicated, okay?”

He sniffed and turned, walking further into the dream. The waist-high grass swayed in the wind which sang soft sea shanties, and off in the distance was an overgrown tower, glowing as the focal point of the dream.

There was no Wrong here. Anders shivered slightly. Weird.

“It’s too peaceful,” Fear said.

“The dreamer is relaxed,” Rage said. “I sense no anger on their part. This does not necessarily mean that nothing is wrong, but there is no anger here at least.”

“It’s too peaceful I don’t like it.”

Anders patted her on the back encouragingly. “We’ll find Wisdom for you.”

—

“So what happened?” Desire asked out of the blue.

“What?”

Desire flicked his tail awkwardly. “I mean. How did you die?”

“That’s a very personal question,” Anders said.

“Is it?” Desire asked. “I wouldn’t think so. All mortals die after all. It’s one of those givens. But if it’s personal.”

“He was killed by a friend,” Rage said.

The problem was that Justice had gotten used to people who didn’t see overlays of an emotional aspect. He had gotten used to a sense of privacy, that his thoughts were completely unable to be picked up by others. This had been an annoyance at first as he would simply assume people knew things, and then they didn’t. But after seven years in the mortal world, he had not only adapted to that one, but he had become unaccustomed to this one.

“That’s rude,” Fear said. “I mean I guess it’s rude. I don’t know a lot about mortal customs, but I think that would be rude.”

Justice, or Anders, had two options. He could explain the situation despite the deeply personal nature, or he could not and then have a demon, a possible demon, and a spirit pick at his thoughts and inevitably come away with misconceptions.

“It’s complicated,” Anders said lamely.

“Traveling takes a while and is boring without conversation,” Rage said. “Especially as I have been repeatedly asked not to destroy the land around me.”

“Also we are two asshole demons and a twitchy ass spirit. I don’t think you should worry about us judging you or whatever,” Desire said.

“I am already judging the friend,” Rage said. “I would offer to kill your ex-friend for you, but I am not in the mortal world. It would be difficult. I suppose I could try to find a way across through the Veil or attempt to possess something like a corpse or a giant in order to bolster my strength, but I am not entirely sure how to go about doing that. Perhaps I shall ask Wisdom about this.”

“You shouldn’t judge Hawke. It’s complicated,” maybe Anders said again.

All three of them looked at him expectantly.

At first he said nothing, but finally he conceded with a sigh. “There was a city that perpetuated injustice after injustice. I attempted time and time again to fix things, to come up with non-violent solutions, but no one listened. Despite my best efforts, the situation only worsened.”

Rage’s eyes flickered, dripping liquid white flame as his body glowed brighter in emotional response.

“Eventually, I found out it was only a matter of time, of short time, until someone would call for a slaughter on a tower full of innocents. This would be allowed as it was _legal_ ,” he said bitterly. “But it could have been stopped. There was supposed to be a check for this. A woman named Elthina had the power to stop things at any time, to at least look into the situation, alleviate it in any way, but she sat in Sloth and did nothing.”

Again and again he presented her with evidence, and she had turned scornfully from it all while keeping her ‘matronly’ demeanor. It worsened and worsened and the abuses grew more and more horrific, to which she merely shook her head and then nothing more.

“There was a building that was the symbol of her organization. I destroyed it publicly. It was a gambit. Either they would punish me alone and thus prove to be the slightest bit reasonable in which case I was wrong, or they would use the opportunity to justify slaughter and thus prove to the world their corruption and force the world to notice the conditions in which the mages suffered.”

“It was the first?” Fear asked.

“No,” Justice said.

“…oh.”

“The mages fought back with aid of… of that friend, but I did destroy the building. While I planned for some time a way to minimize innocents being injured or killed in the explosion, some died regardless. I also had no assurance the mages would survive. While I knew it was only a matter of time, and this at least would give them a warning and more of a fighting chance, I was still the catalyst for the event. The act was Unjust, and while the act was absolutely necessary for greater Justice, I required judgment which I deferred to Hawke.”

“…and he killed you,” Desire said awkwardly.

“Yes.”

But he wasn’t dead. The Judgment didn’t take. Justice did not know if that meant something had absolved him, or if by the destruction of the Chantry being ultimately a Just action he could not die from it, or if his current state was a fluke of some sorts, and thus the judgment had not passed requiring Justice to seek someone else out to judge him.

“Shouldn’t only another Justice spirit be properly able to judge you?” Rage asked.

“In this case, no,” Justice said.

“It’s more than that,” Rage said. “Your allies you thought could be friends made little protest.”

“I do not wish to be angry over this,” Justice said, barely keeping himself from snapping.

“That is understandable,” Rage said. “Anger is a far more complex thing than many give credit, with so many nuances and variances, some with layers upon layers of reasons, and then anger over feeling anger, especially when it’s towards things one cares about. If you do not wish to be angry, then I shall be angry on your behalf.”

—

It had begun to rain water as well as mud, slickening everything around them, and the ground had become hills in multiple directions a while ago. This did not help with keeping balance. Fear had tired of the mud even though she didn’t walk but floated. She was currently trying to figure out how to contest it in a bubble around them, but whatever source behind this was more powerful than her.

Justice sat on the sidelines and watched her struggle while Rage attempted to give helpful suggestions and while the wisp tried to figure out why water was falling from the sky.

Justice had heard of spirits of Fear, even if they were not nearly as common as Fear demons. Instead of gluttoning themselves on terror, they attempted to work through dreamers’ fears and leave them in a better place. Meanwhile, Justice had not once heard of a spirit of Rage. They were always demons. The problem was he was starting to grow to like this Rage, and that was probably allowed since Rage himself was uncertain if he truly was a demon.

“For someone who doesn’t like demons,” Desire drawled behind him, “you sure aren’t as pure as most spirits would like to pretend to be.”

“Please leave,” Justice said sharply. After the previous conversation, Justice had enough of sharing, and throughout this journey he had had more than enough of Desire.

Desire did not leave but instead sat awkwardly on the ground next to him. “Look. You seem rather broken up about your actions. I can’t quite grasp why, but then. Desire, so. Not a Justice.”

“That would make empathizing harder.”

Desire seemingly ignored that barb as he continued to not leave. “I’m going to try to give you some advice. I’m not Wisdom, so if I’m wrong I’m wrong I guess, but I’mma try. Give me a sec here to figure out the best way to word this.”

Fantastic.

Desire bit his lip, eyebrows slightly lowered in thought while the flames emitting from his head ignored the rain around him. “There… is no actual such thing as justice.”

Justice gave him a sharp look, but Desire held up a talon.

“There is no mercy, no hope, compassion or envy or desire. They don’t exist, except for that which we, mortals or us, make. Not a single thread in the fabric of reality says that wrongs shall be punished exists--the same can be said of wants or wishes or loyalty. These are derived concepts that people came up with. At some point, some jackass fucked over someone else minding their business, and people said ‘hey. Wait. That’s not Fair. There should be some kind of comeuppance, right?’ Whether it was by their own morals or self-interest in themselves not getting fucked over by someone else. And this sort of thing happened enough all over everywhere with people insisting there should be some payback that the idea of Justice was born.”

Justice said nothing.

Desire looked awkward but continued. “But this is a concept. There is no natural force in the world that does the comeuppance. And for people like me, I appreciate that, at least until someone far nastier strolls along, taking everything they please, and being so powerful that no one can stop them. It’s all fake concepts running around, but we, mortals and us, make them real by existing. The important part here is understanding that the entire base of- of everything is flawed.”

Desire waved his hands about. “And then you have concepts that are made real that nobody agrees on what it entails. Like politeness. There is no universal law of politeness, but by social contract agreement, it is something made very much Real. It was fake, but now you can unintentionally, or intentionally, be cruel and dismissive by not being polite.”

Desire shrugged. “So, yeah. Maybe what you did wasn’t true Justice because true Justice doesn’t exist. Sometimes you don’t get easy solutions. Sometimes there is no perfect path, no pure answer. Sometimes all you have are good and bad choices, or terrible and maybe okay choices. People can get blinded by the lack of perfection in paths, in ideas, in people, in stories, in anything. If it isn’t perfect, they reject it. Spirits can be most affected by this. Sometimes all you can do is hold onto your principles and pick the best option that will help the most amount of people. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but then things rarely are, and this is how it always has been.”

“Not once,” Justice argued. “Once things were far simpler.”

Desire nodded. “Yes once. Even before you took up Justice, maybe during. I don’t know how you personally do things, but spirits sometimes prune out those memories when they realize what they are is only an idea pretending to be real. It’s a problem with you guys. Ain’t saying there ain’t problems with demons, I don’t feel we need to get into that territory because that could take quite some time, but when you come into conflicting information, you decide the conflict doesn’t exist rather than needing to broaden your horizons. You can get far in a very simple capacity, but true advancement only comes through the muddied waters. That’s harder. It’s not simple. It’s not cleancut. And forgetting it isn’t is… tempting. It’s easy. And not just for remaining ‘pure’, but who doesn’t want to forget the nasty things sometimes, the things that hurt and tore and defiled?”

His words trailed off there, eyes growing distant, before snapping back. “Anyway, I guess it makes it easier to be a spirit that way, but it can blind you to the true nature of what you are. Which is a fake construct attempting to impose a virtue upon the world for the better.”

Once, Justice had no desire to find out why demons were demons. He had the irrational fear that if he knew, he would become corrupted in turn. As things were now, he doubted finding out could corrupt him further than he possibly was. If anything, knowing might help him keep from going astray.

“Why are you a demon?” he asked.

Desire sighed. “Well. Mortals. They can fuck you up. I could be better I suppose, but I’d rather stay fucked up. And just as a clarification, not in a ‘purity’ way like spirithood we were just talking about earlier. I don’t personally know why it’s important for you, but you can struggle with your actions and think and ponder and remain a Proper Virtuous Justice Spirit and maybe come away stronger from this.”

There was no deceit in him, not in any of this. Desire had been as honest as he could.

“Why do you care?” Justice asked softly.

Desire shrugged. “Well. I don’t. That’s my thing, since, ya know. ‘Desires don’t care.’ Everyone else cares, or mostly everyone else depending on their thing. So sorry I guess if I came off wrong here. I’m kinda at a distinct disadvantage, but you seemed really broken up about it, and I wanted to help.”

That… sounded exactly like someone who very much did care. Justice idly wondered if Desire just thought this because ‘everyone knew Desire doesn’t care’ the same way Rage knew that ‘everyone knew Rage had no intelligence to speak of’. Aside from his initial rudeness to Justice, Desire had obviously cared about the wisps in the forest and the spirit of Fortitude who had wanted his aid.

He wasn’t sure if it was the strange show of amiability, or if it was because he had so few other people to talk to at this point, but he actually was curious about Desire’s opinion. “What do you think of what I did?”

“Sorry,” Desire said, and he honestly sounded like it. “Desire and Justice aren’t even that close on ideas. I also wasn’t there for it, and I guess I am a bit biased since I hold no love for the Chantry. You seem to think it was ultimately the just thing even if through some weird, hard, complicated calculations. That’s about as much of an opinion as I’ve got.”

It had been Just and Right and Wrong all at the same time. Hawke had killed them for it. Charity had given them a present for it. He should care harder on the fact that he had done Wrong, but the truth was that he didn’t. He cared that he didn’t care, because ultimately the Chantry had to pay for its continued crimes against mages. It was on that alone that he made his decision, that reason alone instead of _also_ the atrocities against elves, something he was in fact aware of, but he could not pursue every cause at once.

That Chantry in particular had turned countless refugees away when there had been plenty of space to take them in. It let the poor starve while it decorated itself in gold and opulence, something even Fenris had agreed with. It purposefully let the Qunari conflict devolve to suit its own needs, and Justice had learned Rage from watching all these events.

It was not easy, but it had been both Just and Right, and with that thought, something in him eased.

Desire hesitated for a moment before giving Justice the most awkward pat on the back he had ever received. “Glad… I could help.”

He actually had. “I-”

A whistle pierced his ears and ruined the moment. He looked over saw Fear desperately waving. “Hey? Hey! We have a problem. Like a really, really bad problem.”

Justice rose. “What is it?”

Fear fiddled with one of her spider legs. “Well I was trying to undo the rain but it was only getting worse, but it’s getting worse everywhere around us on purpose and I think I accidentally just created a partial safe zone which is good! …because I think something is actively trying to kill us.”

Couldn’t be Honor. They weren’t strong enough for this.

Desire frowned and teleported to Fear’s side. “I can’t sense anyone or anything. Not saying you are wrong, but this is weird.”

_You are alone now. That is good. Now hush._

And just like that, Desire was gone. Everything was gone, lost into a swirling torrent of muddy water.

_Hush. Let me help. It’ll be okay._

Justice couldn’t fight against the river. He should, it was only a thought, and he was a spirit and should have been able to at least attempt to contest it.

He struggled to get to the surface, but the water only became heavier and thicker, dragging him down into an impossible depth.

His lungs burned. It made no sense. He didn’t have lungs, not truly, but they burned. He couldn’t think, couldn’t see anything around him, and he burned and did not know if he could drown.

_Only a minute._

He distantly recognized them then. Compassion. Justice did not know if he could drown by normal water, or Fade water, but he distantly thought that another spirit could indeed drown him by imposing it upon him.

Anders instinctively gasped for air from the burning of his lungs, and shortly after, everything was gone.

—

The first thing Anders was aware of was that he was very much not dead. The second thing was that some weird probably spirit instinct just now had kicked in, and then he hadn’t been solid, all the foreign water and mud clogging his lungs falling out of his ‘body’.

He half-lay face down, propped up on his arms. He knew logically he should be coughing, even if not to expel water but as an instinct, but he merely breathed, light-headed and dizzy and hurting all over.

“Not dead,” Fear said triumphantly.

Anders looked over and then made a rather undignified noise of fright as Fear was currently not in her normal form but instead looking like a many-legged serpentine isopod. Many legs. Like a freakish cross between an isopod, a spider, and a Childer. Anders didn’t like the Children, and he certainly didn’t like this, and while he was grateful for being rescued, needless to say, he was having a bit of a fright.

“It’s the only water-based form I have,” Fear said apologetically. “What’s a Childer? Oh that’s a Childer. Oh I don’t like that at all. Oh no. Those are real? _Those are real?_ ”

“Nyurgh,” Anders said coherently.

Wait. Was Justice-

No he was still right there, entwined inside him.

“What happened?” he asked groggily. “I thought I died.”

“Oh no you did,” Fear said. “It was alarming, and Rage got upset. You were just gone, but then after a bit, you were there again? So I dove in to rescue you before you could die again.”

Anders then noticed that not only was there no river, there was no mud or rain, and it had all been replaced with a scorched wasteland.

“And well, since Compassion was the river… anyway, uh, Rage killed that terrifying Compassion spirit. He really killed them. They are gone.”

That would do the trick, Anders thought sluggishly. He supposed he owed Rage now who was currently off in the distance much larger than normal and actively spewing lava. Desire, by his body language, seemed to be trying to calm him down.

“So. If I died…”

“It’s a mystery,” Fear said. “I don’t know. Desire doesn’t know? Desire knew you died though, for sure dead, but maybe you can’t die? Or I guess it’s that you can’t stay dead. Maybe that’s what happened. Your mortal body died, but you can’t stay dead, so you ended up here, and you still can’t stay dead. That sounds nice. Or horrible. It could be horrible if there was torture involved, wouldn’t it? Or if you were summoned by some evil mage who bound you and forced you into servitude for eternity. That could also happen.”

Anders’ initial gut instinct was to argue that no, mages were good and wouldn’t do that. But then, that wasn’t always the case. Some blood mages did summon and bind demons. That was a thing that happened.

“I’m glad you were around to help,” Anders said. He considered placing a hand on one of Fear’s many freakish legs as a gesture of solidarity. He considered it. “Thanks,” he said instead because there were limits to his incredibly reasonable fears here.

“I get it,” Fear said, and then switched back into her normal form. “Again, everything’s scary. Like drowning. For you, but then me. I didn’t want to drown either, and there was so much water.”

“You… were an isopod,” Anders said slowly. “They can breathe underwater. You weren’t in any danger.”

“Oh?” Fear asked. “Really? Oh. Oh that’s good then. I’ll remember that. That for water. That should make water less scary right except oh wait shit there’s monsters in the rivers and seas that could eat me oh noooooo.”

She wasn’t as terrifying now, so Anders did go for that pat on a leg.

Desire and Rage finally walked, or slithered, over. There was an odd expression on Desire’s face, but he didn’t say anything. Rage then promptly hugged him, and it didn’t burn the slightest.

…this was the most support he had felt in years, and it was from a Rage, a Desire demon, and a Fear spirit. He was just going to blame his shaky breath on having account of just recently drowned, and his eyes only stung because of all that mud.

“Yeah I’m… okay. I’m not dead,” Anders said, hugging him back.

“I destroyed Compassion on your behalf,” Rage said firmly.

“I appreciate it.” That had been a very powerful Compassion spirit, and they honestly were terrified of them by now and didn’t like their particular brand of ‘help’. Anders liked Desire’s help better.

Desire flicked his tail a few times. “Well,” he finally said. “Now that we are all okay, let’s… let’s go find Wisdom.”

There was something odd in his tone, but Justice sensed no deception from him, and out of respect for their recent conversation, he didn’t push it.


	4. Chapter 4

They all moved sluggishly after, but at least the scenery was nice. Simple, but nice, and there was no water to be seen.

“I think that may have taken more effort than I thought,” Rage said.

“You have bearings, right?” Fear asked Desire for the third time.

“Yes,” Desire said patiently who had been able to stretch out the golden road beacon once more. “I knew he was in this part of this area, and there’s a small conglomerate I’ve been heading towards that knows his precise location.”

“I may want to stay back then,” Justice said uncertainly.

“If anyone else attempts to attack you, I shall kill them,” Rage said helpfully.

“I still would rather you not, unless they are of the ability of that last spirit.” Justice thought for a moment. “Or around that strength. However if the spirit or demon bodes no threat, then I wish that you do not kill them.”

Rage nodded. “That is reasonable, and I shall accept this compromise. I apologize if it feels if i am pressuring you in this way as I realize now it could come off as such. In truth, I very much care about you and only wish you to be safe and also for your enemies to be dead.” He looked around. “This is a nice area filled with perfectly normal flowers. The two of us could stay here while you two press onward. If for some reason the spirits are wary of you, Desire, then they may trust Fear. I am tired from my conflict, so I shall stay behind.”

Justice paused. Something felt wrong.

“I don’t want to split the party,” Fear said. “That’s when bad things happen. Maybe we could all just sit around and relax and wait for Rage to regain his strength and then press on?”

Justice sighed. Sloth. Of course. These were poppies which could be made into opiates. That was more subtle of a demesne than what most Sloth demons went for which Justice grudgingly appreciated. After slaying enough demons using the exact same method over and over again, one became to appreciate some artistry put into such things. “We should move ahead. We are in the realm of a Sloth demon, and I believe it is affecting you all.”

“I don’t think there’s a Sloth demon nearby,” Fear said.

“You… are a spirit,” Justice said slowly. “You can see through guises.”

“Some spirits and demons can,” Rage said, “though I believe it depends on the kind. Since of course you are Justice, and hiding your evil demonic schemes is Wrong, you would be able to see through that. That does beg the question that in the mortal world, would you be able to tell apart normal spirits and demons that weren’t doing anything immoral?”

That actually was a good question. Justice just assumed he would have known if someone else was a spirit. Had there been spirits about that he hadn’t been aware of?

“We can talk about this later,” Justice reasonably said, “as we are currently in the realm of a Sloth demon, and it’s affecting you. I believe we should strike back, or at the very least, leave.”

Rage oozed into a lava puddle on the ground.

“I don’t know,” Fear said. “I feel great? I think I’m still scared, but everything feels nice and happy.” She swished her hands through the flowers. The wisp danced around her hands for a moment before settling down on a flower.

The wisp settled down.

The wisp actually stopped bounding about in a constant stream of motion.

“Sloth is attempting to exert its influence in order to consume your essence,” Justice said, attempting to be patient after their recent support and aid.

“Now that’s rude,” Desire said, now reclining in a chair. “Just because someone is a demon doesn’t mean you can call them ‘it’.”

“Or spirits,” Rage said. “I’ve only been around for a short while, but I have already heard things.”

“Oh yeah people call spirits ‘its’ too. Do you want a chair?”

Rage remained motionless.

“Okay you don’t want a chair. Do either of you two—or technically three I guess—want a chair?”

Justice was torn between irritation and flattery that he finally got to be included in regards to chairs, but there was a powerful Sloth demon nearby, and that needed tending to. He had learned from the mortal world that rarely could he sway people to do the just thing by appealing to virtue. Sometimes you had to use other ways. “I recently died,” he said, attempting to play the ‘sympathy’ card. “Surely this means I should not attempt to kill the Sloth demon on my own?”

“You came back though. I’m sure you got it.” Desire gave him a dazzling smile.

Justice looked over at Fear. Fear looked at him and then at the flowers and then back to him.

—

Justice approached the center of the demesne alone because his companions were not being helpful. Before he had assumed that perhaps it was because mortals were easily swayed by demons, but no, even these non-mortal companions were still easily swayed by a demon.

Resisting wasn’t hard, he told himself, specifically stepping on flowers in his path the utmost petty fashion. A demon is attempting to eat you. A demon is attempting to make twisted promises that will only inevitably end in ruin in return for possessing you and stripping you of your own sense of self.

Thus, Justice thought, it should be easy to resist when it would only (and obviously) end in  _ death _ or  _ malevolent possession. _

He supposed he should be more fair to his companions as they had battled off Compassion for him when he could not. He should. However, he thoroughly wasn’t because resisting wasn’t hard when  _ death _ was on the line.

Ahead was an enormous flower with the petals closed in around and colorful smoke drifting out in lazy spirals.

“Show yourself,” Justice said irritably because times had recently been trying.

The only response was a slight wind stirring across the field of flowers, so beautiful and shimmering in the light.

Justice couldn’t contest the land around him, and he couldn’t hit a dematerialized Sloth demon with a sword, but there was another option.

Anders did what Anders did best, and he promptly set everything around him on fire.

—

“It’s been so trying for you,” Sloth wheedled. “You’ve faced so much. Surely you deserve time to think and contemplate about your actions, some rest in the-”

Justice stabbed him with his sword, because Sloth wanted to eat him, and it was  _ that easy  _ to resist someone trying to eat you.

Honestly!

—

Justice noticed a slight flaw in his plan as when Sloth died, the land began to fade out as that what happens when someone dies. He hadn’t fully thought this part through as he was still used to the idea of killing a demon and then being fine afterward since as an actual spirit, he had a demesne. This was never a concern before. It was a concern now, and he should remember this for the future when slaying demons.

A faint “shit” came from the distance, and then all at once around him were tiles and shifting veils.

Desire materialized in front of him. “I didn’t think that through.”

Justice just looked at him.

“What?”

Justice said nothing because Desire had gone out of his way to try to be kind to him, and Justice was not about to dishonor that. It was fair play, he supposed, as they had saved him from a spirit, and now he had saved them from a demon. He should be reasonable about this.

“What?”

There was a faint wail in the distance saying, “Everything is terrible now.”

At least Justice got to kill an evil being preying on those who were caught up in its path. That made him feel a little better. Maybe that’s what he and Anders could do after this; find simple and obvious injustices and work on those. It almost sounded like a holiday.

“Whatever works for you, buddy,” Desire said.

—

The settlement was up ahead, branching spires of rock in all directions with openings to what looked like a geode inside. Perhaps soon he could show Anders these places. The thought was encouraging.

Spirits shimmered in the distance, and Justice sighed. “I should stay back,” he said. “The defenses of such places tend to be… proactive in my case.”

Rage patted him on the shoulder.

“No, Rage, I don’t want you killing those in the area who come against me.”

Rage made a protesting noise.

“It’s understandable for them to have this misconception and are only looking for safety.”

“That is what you told yourself when people would attack you for being an abomination in the mortal world,” Rage said. “’Understandable’ is not necessarily an excuse, and you were greatly distressed by the constant reminder of how you would never be a person in anyone’s eyes. It is a very fascinating anger, and I am sorry for the hardships you have undergone. Are you sure I cannot smite your enemies for you?”

“You can,” Justice said. “But these are not my enemies.”

Just as Rage nodded, an all-too familiar voice sounded from behind, a voice that one could almost hear the sneer in. “No?”

Justice turned to look at Honor, hoping he would be able to talk Rage out of killing them as Rage was twitchy both after Compassion and then also after failing to resist the schemes of Sloth. He almost felt sorry for Honor.

And then he did very much feel sorry as by materializing from nowhere, they startled Fear.

Fear’s response to seeing a sudden Honor spirit was to let out an, ironically, terrifying screech, summon a cast iron skillet of all things, and then promptly brain them across the skull. Honor dropped like a rock.

Fear immediately dropped the skillet, hands flying to her approximate mouth. “Oh did I kill him? Wait. No he’s not vanishing. He’s just temporarily disabled.”

Desire jerked a thumb back at the city. “I’ll just go ahead and ask. You guys have fun.” His form dematerialized in a puff of purple smoke, and then he slithered into the city.

Fear poked at Honor with one of her arachnid limbs.

“He would not be a threat even to you,” Justice assured her.

“This is the third time they have attempted to kill you and have failed terribly in the attempt?” Rage asked. As Justice nodded, Rage said, “I must respect their dedication if nothing else.”


	5. Chapter 5

In a surprising show of character growth, Rage did not ask to kill Honor, even if he did keep glancing down at the form. Anders cast yet another stasis spell to keep Honor down, and they waited for Desire to return. The wisp, recognizing Honor, decided to flutter about their form while occasionally repeating things they had heard Honor say.

Eventually Desire showed, back in another puff of a purple smoke, and clapped his hands together. “Gentlefolk, wisp, unconscious spirit.”

Rage raised a limb. “Does this mean he doesn’t count as ‘gentlefolk’?”

“Righto. Our journey is almost at an end. We’re really close by, and as long as we skirt around the village, this should be it.”

They left Honor behind, Fear giving him a quick hesitant pat before scurrying off. Even at a distance, they received odd looks from the spirits lingering near the settlement, but Desire just waved a friendly hand, and the spirits settled down.

Soon, Justice reminded himself. And soon it was, as there was no missing Wisdom’s demesne.

“I’m guessing he’s a powerful Wisdom spirit,” Fear said. “That’s all him? Really?”

In front of them was a massive, sprawling emerald city, as far as the eye could see, that glittered in the light. Towers grew from the ground, reached down from the sky, while spirits flitted about to and fro.

“It’s such a beautiful shade of green,” Fear said in awe.

“It might not actually be green,” Rage said. “For all we know, the city itself is a brilliant white, and only the ambient light from the Fade has made it look so.”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Desire said with an eyeroll. “Okay, so, nothing to worry in regards to Justice, Wisdom takes demon clients all the time. And if anyone does try anything, then Rage? Just eat them.”

“No one is eating anyone else,” Justice said irritably.

“Oh like how you totally didn’t eat that Sloth spirit?” Desire asked sarcastically.

“What?”

“It didn’t perk you right up? Make you feel good fulfilling your purpose while killing someone? All the energy just revitalizing you.”

“That is not what happened,” Justice said. “You are twisting the events.”

“Fine, fine. Keep your head in the sand.”

“You eat demons?” Fear asked horrified.

“No!”

Desire nodded from behind his back, and Justice twitched.

The wisp promptly peeled off and bounded into the city, having enough of all of their shenanigans, and knowing in their tiny wisp heart that finding this Wisdom was Important because everyone had kept saying so during this entire journey.

“The wisp!” Anders said, and everyone quickly followed after.

—

The heart of the city was in the exact center, in a cluster of towers and buildings so close and perfectly geometric it almost resembled a maze. At the absolute center in any direction was something akin to a temple or a place. In the center of the palace was a large, open room. In the center of that room was a marble throne, and as they entered, someone shimmered into what could be called a sitting position.

This was Wisdom. Finally their journey had reached its end. Justice felt an immense wave of relief, but for some strange reason, he also felt trepidation.

“That’s cheating,” Desire strangely said.

“No it’s not,” Wisdom said with a cough.

Desire eyes narrowed. “I know you’re Wisdom. This is your throne room. You appeared right when we walked in.”

What was Desire talking about? Wisdom looked like a Wisdom spirit.

“I could be anyone,” Wisdom said. “You don’t know.”

“That is true,” Rage said. “However, it seems unlikely as this is indeed the center of all things, and also your disguise is of him.” Rage pointed at Desire.

Fear’s spider legs all shuddered row by row and back again. “Really? I’m seeing you Rage. Desire, are you seeing me?”

Desire nodded with an eyeroll. “What about you Justice?”

“I see a Wisdom spirit,” Justice said dryly.

“Ah yeah. Right.”

This was it. _This was it._

…the trepidation must simply be nerves.

Justice approached formally. “I wish to ask you a question.”

Wisdom peered down at him, eyes squinting. “Ah. I see! I haven’t seen one of your lot in quite some time.”

“So you know how to- how to separate us?” Justice asked. And as Wisdom nodded, everything felt worth it.

Rage raised a limb. “How did this happen in the first place? I’m curious.”

Wisdom coughed. “Oh. Well. Sometimes things just go wrong, you know. It’s rather complicated.”

Rage sat patiently and looked at Wisdom with rapt attention.

“So did you all come here for him then? Is that what’s going on?” Wisdom asked, blatantly changing the subject.

“Actually, I was hoping to figure out how to undo this thing?” Fear asked. “I messed up and now all the fears are in me.”

“Oh good lord. Oh dear. Yes, I can work something out there.”

“And I was hoping for knowledge,” Rage said. “Enough to elevate me beyond the limited mental capacities of my kind.”

They really needed to work on his self esteem.

“And you are with Justice on yours, and the wisp is currently trying to eat a speck of light, yes, what about you Desire?”

“He is getting something from me,” Justice said, “but if you wish to ask for your own boon, that more than reasonable.”

Wisdom frowned and scratched at his scraggly beard. “No he isn’t. Was this some kind of those newfangled ‘informal contracts’ that you young kids these days came up with?”

“No, we-” Justice looked inside himself, at the Law where the deal had been made, but nothing was there. It was gone.

Desire shrugged. “I mean, I did know that you died for real,” he said awkwardly. “Contracts don’t persist after death unless you do some very fun amendment clauses. So. I’d say exploit that, but that’s not really your thing.”

Desire had brought him here regardless.

“Awwww,” Rage said.

Desire just looked awkward. “So yeah. Um. I’d actually been thinking about it, and like, _hypothetically_ -”

Wisdom folded his arms. “You realize that by fairness, I am allowed to ask for a boon in return from each of you. Now you could each do yours individually, or you can go as a group for a much harder task.”

All three of them turned to look at Justice with large, hopeful eyes, one set of oozing white light, one set of purple glowing cat eyes, and one set of dark abysses into the void itself.

“As a group,” he said.

“Well, I’ll need you to kill someone, but she is an extraordinarily powerful and evil demon. If you agree and successfully kill her, I shall grant you all your boons.”

While it was annoying that he was so close and yet so far now, Justice had a hard time arguing with killing a powerful and evil demon. That was the sort of thing he did without being asked to do so. Perhaps once, before his stay in the mortal world, he would have voiced this out loud, but time had wizened him. Either that, or Anders was doing his best to make sure Justice didn’t say such things out loud.

One of the two. It was hard to tell sometimes.

“I agree, if she is evil.”

“Oh she definitely is.”

The others also voiced their own agreements, and Wisdom looked pleased and then coughed again. “She has long been a rival of mine and has set up her own lordling demesne. She is, however, extraordinarily powerful, with abilities that most demons cannot claim, knowledges of how to warp the Veil itself. No one has faced her and lived. Sometimes I send someone along to go check on her, but they never return.”

“That sounds terrible indeed,” Rage said.

“How often do you send people?” Fear asked nervously.

“Oh I don’t want to discourage you,” Wisdom said. “I’m… sure you’ll be fine. You’ll do great. Ignore the fact that she has countless souls bound in her demesne that she feeds off of to grow in power. Ignore that bit. You’ll do fine.”

Justice inclined his head. “What is her name?”

“Ah, yes,” Wisdom said. “Her title is The Baroness of the Blackmarsh.”

“Oh.” Justice blinked. Well that was convenient. “I… have already killed her. In the past.”

“What?”

“It was how I fell into the mortal world,” he said. “She slipped through after, and a group of noble warriors and I slew her.”

Awwww ‘noble warriors’. That was a very idyllic way of looking at the Wardens.

Noble in cause, then.

Wisdom sniffed. “Urhur, in that case, could I get you to kill someone else for-”

“No!” Desire said loudly. “A deal is a deal. You can’t weasel out of this, and frankly it is an affront that you would try. Now give us shit.”

Wisdom fidgeted before giving them a hopeful look. “…but couldn’t you say the real treasure was the friendships you made along the way?”

“NO!"

Wisdom sighed. “Well alright then.” He reached into one of his many coat pockets and pulled out an orb.

“Knowledge for Rage,” he said, and then mostly tossed it, barely not quite getting into the ‘lob’, but the throw was lob-adjacent. Rage caught it and then promptly ate it.

“However you want to absorb that, I suppose,” he muttered. “And, Desire, here is your gift.”

It was an anatomically correct human heart which he threw in the vague general direction of Desire. He caught it regardless with his extended self and rapidly, almost greedily, brought it to his body.

“I did not mean that literally,” Justice said, feeling bad now. While Desire hadn’t proved to be a Virtuous sort, he had proved to be better than many of the companions he had traveled with in the mortal world, and as much as he hated it, Justice was growing fond of this Desire _demon_.

“Shut it! This isn’t for that,” Desire said, obviously lying through Justice’s senses. He quickly span up an ornate chest and gently set it inside before disappearing it again. “Just. Shut up.”

“Fear, here is yours, a special bottle,” he said, not quite chucking it at her face. “You are currently embodying all of the Fears you have seen. The problem is is that you have no place to put them other than you. So, the bottle. Just shove them in there, and then hopefully you can avoid the transformation into a terrifying Nightmare demon like one asshole I know. That was going to be the other guy I was going to ask you to kill, by the way.”

“Where is this Nightmare?” Justice asked reflexively and then felt the mental equivalent of someone kicking him in the shin bones.

“Oh I don’t know. Around. Somewhere. Somewhere not here.” Wisdom made a particularly gross sounding snort. “And can’t forget the wisp. Here you go.” And then the light speck floated upwards. The wisp grabbed onto it and began to hum happily.

Justice shifted his weight back and forth impatiently.

Wisdom made a number of grunts, grunt-snorts, and sighs, ending on breathing out heavier than necessary. “Well see, Justice. Extra. Yours is a special case. I am going to hypothesize here. Justice made a deal with you along the lines of fixing something deeply personal. You know, classic Justice shenanigans. But there is a way of phrasing deals, see. What did you swear it on, Justice?”

“My… life,” Justice said. “As him allowing me to possess him would save me. I thought it fair.”

“It was fair,” Wisdom said, and Justice felt better hearing that. “But you died in the pursuit of this, no? In the pursuit. The cause you took was not dead, was still going, by your efforts as well as others. You, as promised, greatly furthered the cause. But neither were you successful in that the cause is still ongoing, see.”

“We are alive then as long as the cause of mages exists?” Justice asked.

“You are the Cause of Mages,” Wisdom said exasperatedly. “Or you were. When you two”—he shoved his hands together—”made out like a harvester. But what did we just learn from Desire? Deals are no longer in place if the spirit dies. However, you swore on your life to strive to make the world a better place for mages. You succeeded in a true act of Justice, and that’s a very important thing here, otherwise this couldn’t have happened. But you didn’t succeed, not completely, and thus the deal should still be around. Except you died, except the deal had not quite an amendment clause for that, etc etc. What you got here was a classic deal fulfilling paradox.”

“And that is what happens in those cases?” Rage asked excitedly.

“No.”

Rage deflated slightly.

“No normally they just up and die! Pfffffft. No more of either of them. But sometimes, rarely, the reverse happens, and they don’t die, and then since they didn’t die via loophole, they kinda glitch barely outside of the system. Nobody is quite sure on the why, but that is because of just how rare it is. Also, no one volunteers to be test subjects to try to replicate things.”

“…and then they can’t die,” Anders said slowly.

Wisdom finger-gunned him. “Exactly, other person whose name I don’t care to know. It tilts the other way. My friends, you have made yourselves immortal. More or less. Immortality is a fluid state of being. Anyway, for the second thing, you are currently still made out like a harvester, and that’s gross to look at.”

“I think it’s romantic,” Rage said happily.

“So then how do we separate?” Justice asked slowly. “But- wait, if we are undying, is it solely in this state?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Wisdom said. “Your kind aren’t exactly common. Can’t even call them ‘rare’ as they are that uncommon. I’m guessing what few cases there might be wandering around separate in order to blend in.”

“So then it wouldn’t hurt him,” Justice said. “Anders. He’s mortal, and this is the Fade after all.”

Wisdom waved a hand. “He’ll be fine. He’ll adapt. Other mages have. Not necessarily like this case, but mages whose spirits are trapped here eventually become somewhat like a spirit. Not fully, but enough, the same way some spirits go down on that blasted land and decide they want to become solid. Still spirits, just solid. In here, mortals are still mortals, but ephemeral and needing to have a strong grasp on something like spirits do.”

“Ah. That is good for them.”

Why did this conversation feel so final?

“Anyway, it’s really not hard. Most figure it out on their own, but then you mangled up that possession really hard to begin with. Did you not know what you were doing somehow? That’s just a real poor job of possession. Like really, I have seen some poor ass jobs at possession in my days, but you really-”

“Yes, I get it,” Justice said, not wanting to hear about his ‘terrible possession techniques’ all over again.

“Well then that’s it,” Wisdom said. “You unpossess him.”

“Oh,” Justice said, feeling foolish.

“Oh,” Fear said.

“Oh,” Desire said.

“Intriguing,” Rage said. “That was simpler than I thought. I would almost suggest that you trying to ask for another boon, but that might require work.”

“I shall be fine,” Justice said.

“You see? The power to separate was with you all along.”

“I’m-”

“Not sure you know how?” Desire asked, but with a surprising lack of snideness.

“No I-” Justice thought for a moment. “If I do, then he won’t have a mortal body.”

“He’ll be fine,” Wisdom said, looking from them to the door and tapping his fingers against the throne.

“If he doesn’t have a mortal body, then if we separate, would there be a way to rejoin?”

Wisdom stopped tapping his fingers and squinted at him in disgust. “No? Okay, technically, yes, but that’s rare lore of rare lore. I don’t even know the guy who would know about that. And why would you? This was your whole quest, so. Go on then.”

Justice stood there. Anders stood there. Neither of them pulled away from each other.

“Please separate already,” Wisdom said tiredly. “I used that harvester comparison for a reason. Nobody likes harvesters. They are disgusting aberrations, and nobody likes to look at them.”

Both of them continued to just stand there.

Desire patted them on the shoulder. “I understand.”

“Are you seriously going to just keep sticking together?” Fear asked.

Rage nudged her. “Fear in the bottle,” he said.

“Yes, right. Into the bottle it goes.”

Separating was the good choice. They could wander freely as they pleased. Anders could experience the Fade version of markets, of theatre. There was so much Justice could show him now. While Anders would still be a bit of a curiosity, they would be able to interact, more or less, peacefully with spirits. They would finally be able to be part of society again. They would be able to directly talk to each other again, and that was good, was it not?

Surely they did not wish to wander for ages doomed to be attacked or scorned by most people they met. Surely that was not worth it.

…but they were used to all that already from the mortal world, now weren’t they?

“We appreciate the knowledge,” Justice, and Anders, said. “We shall take leave of your demesne.”

“Finally,” Wisdom muttered. “Okay then all of you, shoo. Scatter off. I have important things to do.”

It was knowledge he had now. They could separate at some point if they wished. He thought about this as they walked out of the city, as the spirits around chittered and skittered away from him. Having that option was soothing for some reason.

They both continued to remain exactly as they were, entangled in each other, fused together. Perhaps it was not the wisest course of action, but Justice and Anders had finally realized that they would not trade this for all the wonders in either world.

“Did you see this coming?” Justice, or Anders, asked Desire, when they were a good distance away from the city.

“I figured it was a possibility,” Desire said. “You two are really wrapped up in each other.”

Rage politely nudged Justice. “After consuming Knowledge and thus now being of proper intellect”—Justice really needed to try to raise his self-esteem—”I have thought of a possible solution.”

“Don’t we have the solution?” Fear asked. She then promptly put something into her bottle as she had been after every other sentence. She clutched at it self-consciously. “There’s a lot of fears to get through, okay?”

“What is your solution?” Justice asked, because truthfully Rage was the smartest one here and had been from the start. That was not as a slight to the intelligence to the group, but praise for this incredibly smart person.

“This is a bit complicated so bear with me. You seem to be getting better at telling yourselves apart, though that could be me getting used to the nuances and differences of your two souls. Now currently, you have no land, no forms, nothing but yourself.” Rage held up a limb. “Except that is not the case. You have your weaponry. Thus you can have things as a spirit does, only you simply lack it as you are. I have noticed you for some time, and despite what you may think, weaponry is not located in your core; it is stored in the same place as a demesne and all manner of things. And thus, logically, you can regain or grow back again into the form of a proper spirit.”

Something caught in his chest. “Do you really think so?”

Rage nodded. “Likely it will take some time as well as energy, but I am certain you will be able to do so. Now this is important because of the next thing.” Rage turned to Desire. “You know how to do this? A duplicate.”

It dawned upon him then. “An illusion.”

Rage nodded again. “An illusion of whichever one of you chooses. You can therefore ‘split’ and talk to each other as needed without truly splitting.”

“That is a good plan, Rage,” Justice said fondly. “We shall go with that for now.”

“With some practice actually,” Desire said slowly, “it can go beyond simple ‘illusion’ stage. I mean if you grow a demesne, you can grow beyond your current self. So you could make yourself just another body, but it’s not necessarily separating? Like making a tree or a wall, you just make another body. It’s a little weird to get used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy actually. Once you learn the technique it might actually be easier since once of you can control one and the other the other, but your core, so to speak, would still be fused together, just like how if I make another body for myself, I’m not actually splitting _me._ ”

“…that sounds complicated,” Justice said.

“It is a specialty of Desire demons,” Rage said. “Not many others are able to do so.”

Desire shrugged. “Don’t see why. If you are able to grow back proper, I suppose I could teach you.”

“Okay!” Fear said both chipperly and nervously at the same time. “I guess it means evil demons time now, right?”

Every looked at her blankly, so Fear awkwardly pressed onward. “That’s… what you did with Sloth. He was an Evil Demon, and so you killed him and ate him and grew a little.”

“That is technically correct but poorly worded,” Justice said. “I still protest all of your assumptions that I ‘eat’ the demons I kill.”

Desire clapped him on the back. “You did mention wanting to just take it easy for a bit. Why not go find the most malicious demons there are? The ones actively targeting mages. The ones maliciously targeting mages anyway. Some I don’t think fully understand the implications of the mortal world’s idea of possession, and some are honestly trying to help, and some aren’t trying to help per se but they aren't _malicious_ about it, but I can’t argue there’s a good chunk that are in it for the evil shits and giggles which _really_ , we don’t need any- okay look it’s complicated, but I’d be fine killing complete bastards.”

“You’d… be fine.”

Desire looked at him oddly. “I did just say that, genius.”

Justice looked from him to expectant Fear to Rage curiously looking. “You all wish… to continue to travel with me?”

“I still need to get a handle on this Fear thing,” she said, “but the best way is through practice, so. Scary demons works great for me. Also I’m sure you are scarier than any of the demons we’ll see.” She then giggled nervously. “It’s kind of like having a terrifying monster but on your side? It’s actually kinda gotten comforting after a bit.”

“You are fascinating,” Rage said. “And you are both filled with repressed anger issues. I am still happy to help you out with them, and you also agreed to let me smite your enemies for you which would be hard if I was not there with you. Also I am only recently Rage, and thus I do not have many prior attachments, and I have grown to think of you as a friend.”

The wisp floated over to Justice and perched on a feathery pauldron, happily humming.

Justice then looked at Desire.

“…I just want those three memories,” Desire lied.

Anders raised his eyebrows. “I have them right here,” he said, calling on Desire’s bluff.

“No! In a proper deal fashion way.” Desire said quickly. “Once you get large enough, I teach you how to make a second actor in return for those memories. Of course I have no idea when that will happen, so I’ll just stick around for now.”

Fear and Rage also just looked at Desire, who folded his arms self-consciously.

“Okay I maybe also… have started quite mysteriously to care recently for some strange reason that nobody will ever be able to figure out.”

Desire had brought him here with no guarantees that he would get those memories. Anders was fairly certain he had already started caring, but he didn’t want to push Desire too far outside his comfort zone.

“If that’s how you really want to play it,” Anders said, “then hypothetically, we could make the deal, but if I died, it would just vanish again. So. I could give you the memories now if you really wanted them, and we could have one of those ‘newfangled informal contracts that you young kids these days come up with’.”

It was only three memories of eating food. Anders wasn’t that attached, but Desire had honestly seemed interested by them.

Desire muttered something too quiet to hear but seemed like an agreement.

Spirits, and demons, did not require others the same way mortals did. Spirits could spend forever without interacting with anyone else, and this would not harm them in any way. Regardless, aside from seeking the goods and services of other spirits, companionship in itself can be pleasant and beneficial. After all, mortals did not need art or stories in order to survive, but that didn’t stop most of them from seeking those out.

Justice had on his own mostly been a solitary spirit, but Anders would require people, more than just Justice to interact with in order to remain healthy. Even beyond that, Justice had grown oddly fond of these three, and Anders had as well.

And honestly? None of them were worse than Hawke’s companions back in Kirkwall.

“We would welcome your presences,” Justice said.

Rage and Fear looked delighted while Desire tried to act casual.

Maybe he could start small at first, work his way up. While apparently unable to be permanently killed, he was still weakened from many things. They could track down smaller demons at first before moving onto larger ones. He could regrow and have a demesne again and then make a second body for Anders.

They could remain merged and still have two forms. They could have it all.

And then maybe when he had fully regained his strength, he would track down that Nightmare demon.

It _was_ the sort of thing he would do for free, after all.


End file.
